
Class 

Book __. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




From a photograph by F. Pinard, Manatee and Tampa. 

MADAM JULIA ATZEROTH, 

The lady who raised the first coffeeVown in the United States. 



NOTES FROM 



SUN LAND, 

ON THE 

IJanatBe ^m, (|ulf Coa?! 

OF 

SOUTH FLORIDA. 

ITS CT.TMATE, SOIL AXD PRODUCTrOXS. 



The Land of the Orange and. Quava, 
The Pine-Apple, Date and Cassava. 



By SJ^^yCTJIEL C. TJIPIHIJ^qyC. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



BRAIDENTOWN, FLA.: r.Q...^.Q.l:k.:ty^ 

rHiLADELPiiiA, 25 South Eighth Street. '-'■'' 

Published by the Author. 
iSSi. 



'?r 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, 

By SAMUEL C. UPHAM, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtc, D. C. 






TO 

HAMILTON DISSTON, 



Treasurer of the 



ATLANTIC AND GULF COAST CANAL 



OKEECHOBEE LAND COMPANY, 

Not because he is a millionaire, but for the interest he 
has evinced in the welfare and progress of Florida; for 
his integrity as a citizen, and his sterling worth as a man, 
this Brochure is respectfully dedicated by 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 



Two or three letters written by myself to 
friends at the North having found their way into 
print, I have been literally flooded with letters 
during the past six months, from all sections of 
the Union and British Provinces, asking for in- 
formation in relation to the Manatee region of 
Florida. Hundreds have been replied to, and 
many remain unanswered for want of time. This 
little book has been written with the belief that it 
will answer the requirements of my numerous cor- 
respondents, and also prove a welcome guest to 
others who desire reliable information concerning 
this portion of the Gulf coast of South Florida. 
With these brief remarks I cast my little waif 
upon the tide of public opinion, with the hope 
that favorable breezes will waft it into the hands 
of those who will be benefited by its perusal. 

SuNNYSiDE Cottage, 
Braidenioxviif Florida, April /, 1881. 



CHAPTER I. 

Manatee Bay — Its Tropical Scenery — Egmont Key — 
Snead's Island — Date, Palm and Olive Trees^ 
Climate — Insects — Braidentown and its Surround- 
ings — Manatee, the Oldest Town on the Bay — Its 
Early History — Braiden Castle — Fair Oaks — 
Orange Groves — Willemsenburg and Fogartyville. 

The Manatee River, or, more properly speak- 
ing, bay, is one of the most picturesque sheets of 
water in Florida. It is fourteen miles in length, 
with an average width of one and a half miles. 
One of its tributaries — the Manatee River proper 
— extends still further eastward, some twenty 
miles; and another northward, half that distance. 
Its course is nearly due west to Egmont Key, 
where it mingles its waters with those of Tampa 
Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It lies between the 
twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth parallels of 
north latitude, and in longitude 5^° west from 
Washington. A person passing up the bay on the 
mail steamer for the first time, will be charmed 
with the tropical and semi-tropical scenery that 
meets his view on either side of the bay, from its 
mouth to Braidentown, the present terminus of 
steamboat navigation. Egmont Key, with its 

7 



8 Notes f, om Simian d. 

forest of cabbage palmettos nodding their ever- 
green plumes in the morning sun ; the stately date- 
palms and olive trees on Snead's Island, on the 
north side of the bay, and the pretty villas sur- 
rounded by young orange and banana groves on 
the south side, between Palmasola city and Man- 
atee, form a landscape of rare tropical beauty, 
unexceled in the land of flowers, and unrivaled 
by the fairest scenes in Italia's famed land. 

Until quite recently, this part of Florida, the 
great sanitarium of the world, has, comparatively 
speaking, been a sealed book to the invalids and 
pleasure -seekers of the North and West, who spend 
their winters in Jacksonville, St. Augustine and 
the towns on the St. Johns, Halifax and Indian 
Rivers, and console themselves with the idea that 
they have seen all parts of Florida worth visiting. 
The principal drawback which the Gulf coast has 
had to contend with, and which partially exists at 
this time, is lack of speedy transportation and 
comfortable hotel accommodations. These are 
being remedied, and, when the Manatee region 
shall have become as thickly populated as the St. 
Johns, our facilities for transportation, etc., will 
equal those of the Atlantic coast. 

The railroad now being built by Eastern capi- 
talists, between Palatka on the St. Johns and 
Tampa at the head of the bay of that name on 
the Gulf coast, will be completed within two years. 



Notes frojii Sunland. 9 

Then the iron horse, with bowels of fire, muscles 
of steel and breath of steam, with a shriek and a 
snort, will rush over the metallic track and anni- 
hilate time and space so rapidly, that the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts will be within a few hours of each 
other. A narrow-gauge railroad from Tampa to 
the Manatee, and thence to Sarasota Bay, will 
soon follow, giving us direct and rapid communi- 
cation with the principal cities of the North and 
West. The round-about route over King David's 
Transit Railroad to Cedar Key, and thence by 
steamboat to the Manatee, will then be abandoned, 
and henceforth remembered only as a necessity of 
by-gone days. The recent comjDletion of the 
Louisville, Nashville and Great Southern Rail- 
road, with a terminus at Pensacola, will soon give 
us direct and speedy communication with the 
cities of Louisville, Nashville, Cincinnati, Indian- 
apolis, Chicago and St. Louis, and open up the 
best and most available markets for the fruits and 
vegetables of the Gulf coast. General Alexander, 
Vice-President of this company, recently expressed 
his willingness to assist in the establishment of a 
line of steamers between Pensacola and Manatee, 
touching at other points along the coast. 

Our climate is far superior to that of any other 
part of Florida; and, I do not think I hazard 
much in saying, to that of any part of the habita- 
ble globe. Having, during a somewhat eventful 



lo Notes from Sunland. 

life of sixty-two years, visited Europe, Asia, Af- 
rica, Soutli and Central America, Mexico and 
California, I say, and '^I say it boldly," that in 
my varied travels, nowhere have I found so health- 
ful and desirable a climate as '' Sunland," on the 
Manatee Bay. We are exempt from ice and the 
chilling blasts that sweep along the St. Johns and 
Halifax, and also from tornadoes and hurricanes, 
so destructive on the Atlantic coast. 

Insects are neither numerous nor troublesome. 
I have been worse annoyed by mosquitoes in the 
City of Philadelphia than in this part of Florida. 
The ubiquitous flea is, I admit, rather prevalent 
here, but one soon becomes reconciled to his 
habits, and honors his drafts whenever he presents 
his bill. Snakes are not as numerous here as in 
Pennsylvania. There are, however, rattlesnakes 
and moccasins in Florida. The former I have 
never seen, and the latter but seldom. Those 
that came under my observation, appeared to be 
worse frightened than I was, and made a hasty 
exit. Alligators are not numerous in this section, 
and are comparatively harmless. Like a once 
noted statesman, they desire to be let alone. If 
closely cornered, they will fight ; but they prefer 
to run, if a chance is offered for escape. 

Braidentown, the embryo town of the Manatee, 
is situated on the south side of the bay, about 
eight miles above its entrance into Tampa Bay. 



Notes from Suriland. 1 1 

Located on a bluff some fifteen feet above tide- 
water, it commands a fine view of the surrounding 
country and of the entire bay. Being constantly 
fanned by the breezes from the gulf ''with heal- 
ing on their wings," it is in point of healthfulness 
all that the most fastidious pleasiire-seeker or in- 
valid could wish for. From Jack's Creek, its 
eastern boundary, to its western terminus. Ware's 
Creek, it contains a frontage on the bay of three- 
fourths of a mile, dotted with picturesque villas, 
surrounded by tropical fruits and flowers. Al- 
though yet in a chrysalis state, being scarcely two 
years old, it contains two boarding-houses, two 
stores, a meat-shop, post-office and a warehouse, 
with a wharf connecting it with the shore — the 
only one on the bay east of Palmasola city. Pas- 
sengers for Manatee and other places on the bay 
are conveyed on shore in sail or row-boats. Ma- 
jor W. I. Turner, the projector of Braidentown, 
a Virginian by birth, has been a resident of Florida 
for forty-five years. Although on the shady side 
of life, he is still hale and hearty. May he live to 
see his bantling, now in her leading-strings, the 
county-seat of Manatee County. Stranger events 
have happened. This is an age of progress j the 
world moves, and Florida, after her Rip Van 
Winkle sleep of three hundred years, is moving 
with it. 

Sportsmen visiting this place can be accommo- 



1 2 Notes from Siinland. 

dated widi sail boats for fishing, or mule and ox 
teams for a hunting trip to the Miakka, the sports- 
man's paradise. Captain Charles Miller and Billy 
Stowell, alias '^Buffalo Bill," both ''old salts" 
and reliable men, can be engaged with their re- 
spective crafts, the Sancho Panza and Onkeehi, at 
reasonable rates. Ox and mule teams can be had 
of John N. Harris and Dr. S. J. Tyler. 

The reader will pardon a slight digression, and 
allow me to state, that if any person who knows 
how to run a hotel, will start one in Braidentown, 
he will most assuredly put money in his purse, and 
at the same time satisfy a great public want. A 
hotel containing one hundred rooms, properly 
conducted, would be filled with guests six months 
of the year. We have fish, oysters, clams and 
game in abundance, on which boarders could fare 
sumptuously every day. Shall we have a hotel ? 

One and a half miles east of Braidentown, on 
the low, sandy beach of the bay, is the irregularly 
constructed village of Manatee. A stranger visit- 
ing Manatee will invariably ask himself why a 
town was ever built here? The following will 
solve the problem. Adjacent to the village, in a 
southerly direction, are rich hammock lands, 
which, in consequence of their malarial surround- 
ings, could not be domiciled by their owners. 
The pine land on the bay shore offering a more 
healthful location for building, the early settlers 



Notes from Siinland. 13 

availed themselves of it and erected their log and 
palmetto cabins first, and afterward more pre- 
tentious and architectural structures. The Indian 
war breaking out soon after the first settlers had 
located at Manatee, their cabins formed the nu- 
cleus of a settlement as a protection against the 
savages. Thus Manatee became a village, and for 
many years was the only settlement on the Mana- 
tee Bay. The hospitality of her citizens is pro- 
verbial. The stranger within their gates who asks 
for bread is never requested to masticate a stone. 
Unfortunately, the citizens of Manatee are not as 
progressive as hospitable. A plank wharf or foot- 
way, connecting the steamboat warehouse with the 
shore, is badly needed, and should be constructed 
at once. There is a great deal of vitality lying 
dormant in the old town, which, if thoroughly 
aroused and properly applied, would place an en- 
tirely different aspect on the face of affairs. The 
village contains a Methodist church, five stores, 
three boarding-houses, a drug store, an academy, a 
meat-shop and a post-ofiice. Dr. George Casper, 
an enterprising Manateean, wishing to extend his 
usefulness, a^nd being impressed with tire belief 
that It would be a good thing to mix literature 
with physic, has issued the prospectus of a weekly 
newspaper, to be called the Manatee County News. 
It will be the pioneer paper of the county, and its 
editor will have plenty of elbow-room — Manatee 



14 Notes f7'07?i Sunland. 

County being as large as the States of Connecticut 
and Rhode Island. 

One mile east of Manatee, on a point of land 
formed by the junction of Braiden Creek with the 
bay, stands a historic structure, known as Braiden 
Castle. It is composed of a concrete of lime and 
oyster-shells, two stories high, surmounted by a 
cupola or observatory, constructed of wood, from 
which a charming view of the surrounding country 
can be had. South-east, Braiden Creek, winding 
like a silver thread among innumerable evergreen 
islands, presents a view worthy of a poet's dream. 
Westward, as far as the eye can scan, can be traced 
the blue waters of the bay glinting in the sun or 
dancing in the moonbeams on their way to the 
gulf. Northward, across the bay, the eye meets 
hammock, pine land and prairie stretching far 
away toward Tampa Bay. This old relic, scarred 
by Indian bullets, stands a sad memento of better 
days. Who shall write its history ? 

At Fair Oaks, about one and a half miles south 
of the castle, on a portion of the old Braiden plan- 
tation, is the largest and most thrifty young orange 
grove on the gulf coast of South Florida. It com- 
prises nearly four thousand trees ; belongs to the 
Hon. Charles H. Foster, ex-State Treasurer, and is 
a living, growing, bearing monument to Yankee 
pluck, enterprise and industry. Mr. Foster is now 
erecting at Fair Oaks the handsomest private resi- 



Notes frojH Siinland. 15 

dence in South Florida. The most direct route 
to Fair Oaks is by the way of Manatee, and the 
scenery en route is unsurpassed in the land of the 
myrtle and ivy. Leaving Rocky Ford, you pass 
Glen Falls, whose pellucid waters sparkle and 
dance over rock and through chasm, on their 
course to the Manatee. Graceful palms, with 
their evergreen foliage ; stately live oaks, draped 
with pendant moss, swaying to and fro in the 
breeze; girdled oaks, gayly festooned from base 
to apex with ivy, yellow jessamine and Virginia 
creeper, gladden the eye on either side of the road, 
and orange-blossoms perfume the air with their 
delightful fragrance, rendering the scene enchant- 
ing as fairy land. 

In the village of Manatee and adjacent ham- 
mock may be seen the orange groves of Mrs. Gates, 
Revs. Edmund Lee, A. A. Robinson and E. Gla- 
zier, Messrs. Pelote, Curry, Harllee, Mitchell, 
Vanderipe, Lloyd, Clark, Warner, McNeill, Cas- 
per, Gates, Wyatt, Adams, Broberg, Reed and 
Wilson. Mrs. Gates, Parson Lee and Major 
Adams also have banana groves in bearing. The 
latter gentleman is engaged in erecting a large 
concrete mansion, with carriage-house and ser- 
vants' quarters of the same material. Situated in 
an eligible position on the bank of the bay, sur- 
rounded by tropical fruits, flowers and vines, whose 
evergreen foliage constantly waving in the breeze, 
renders the location highly picturesque. 



1 6 Notes from Sutiland. 

Some four or five miles south of Manatee, eti 
7'oiit({ to Sarasota Bay, are thrifty young orange 
groves, belonging to the Messrs. Helm, father and 
sons, Dryman, Marshall, Younglove, Dunham, 
Saunders, Azlin, Howell, Thompson, AVilliams 
and Whitted; and on Black-jack Ridge, near 
Braidentown, may be seen the thrifty grove of 
Judge E. M. Graham. The groves of the Messrs. 
Helm are pronounced by every one who have seen 
them to be the most promising of their age in the 
State. They are only four years old, but will put 
to the blush many groves .twice their age. They 
are monuments of clean and persistent culture. 

On the west side of Ware's Creek, skirting the 
bay, is Willemsenburg, consisting of three houses 
and the frame of a mammoth hotel. This grim 
skeleton, gray with age, has a history. Erected 
originally by Dr. Hunter, at one time a noted 
physician of New York, and Charles W. Skinner, 
a Boston capitalist, on Sanibel, or '^Sanitarium" 
Island, near Punta Rassa, it was soon blow^n or 
washed down. A portion of the wreck, with ad- 
ditional lumber from Cedar Key, was soon after- 
ward erected at Sarasota Bay, where another part- 
ner. Dr. Dunham, of St. Louis, joined in the 
enterprise. A misunderstanding between the trio 
resulted in the withdrawal of the two medical men 
before the structure was completed. Mr. Skinner 
subsequently razed the building to the ground, 



Nofrs frojH Siinland. 1 7 

rafted it through Pahnasola Bay into the Manatee, 
and erected it on its present site, where it has stood 
in an unfinished condition during the past five 
years. The decease of Mr. Skinner soon after its 
erection, caused its progress to stop as suddenly 
as did ''my grandfather's clock" at the death of 
its owner. 

Westward, separated by an imaginary line, is 
Fogartyville, a community composed principally 
of boat-builders and seafaring men, with their 
families. It contains a store, boat-builder's shed, 
half a dozen dwelling-houses, a floating dry-dock 
with two sections in working order, and two addi- 
tional sections nearly completed. The Messrs. 
Fogarty and Captain Bhart are the owners of the 
dry-dock. 

In this cozy little settlement, close down by the 
waters of the bay, lives Madam Julia Atzeroth, 
and in the garden attached to her house was cul- 
tivated with her own hands the first coffee grown 
in the United States. Madam Atzeroth, or Madam 
''Joe," as she is called by her friends, is a char- 
acter, and deserves an extended notice. 



CHAPTER II. 

Madam Atzeroth — Birth, Parentage and Marriage 
• — Arrival in New York — Visit to Philadelphia, 
Easton and New Orleans — Arrival in Florida — 
Locates on Terraceia Island — Vicissitudes of Pio- 
neer Life — A Friend in Need, a Friend Indeed — 
Arrival of her Sister and Family — Trip to New- 

NANSVILLE — CoRN-DODGERS AND SaWDUST — DeATH OF 

Mrs. Nichols — Removal to Fort Brooke, Tampa — 
Col. W. W. Belknap and Family — Return to Ter- 
raceia — Homestead Papers Illegally Executed — 
Return again to Tampa — Gale of 1846 — Remove to 
Palmetto — Indian War — Scenes during the War of 
the Rebellion — Sell out at Palmetto and Settle 

IN FOGARTYVILLE — FiRST CoFFEE GrOWN IN THE 

United States — Its History. 

Madam Julia Atzeroth, whose maiden name 
was Hunt, was born in the City of Bradford, near 
the River Rhine, in Bavaria, on the 25th day of 
December, 1807. Of a family of four children — 
two males and two females — she is the only survi- 
vor. The death of her mother occurring when 
she was eleven years of age, she was adopted by 
an uncle on the maternal side, with whom she 
resided until she attained her majority. At the 
age of twenty-four years she married Joseph At- 

18 



JVofcs front Suu.^a?id. 1 9 

zeroth, also a native of Bavaria. The young 
couple soon after the birth of their first child, a 
daughter, left the Fatherland and immigrated to 
America. They arrived in New York in the 
month of August, 1841, where they remained only 
a few months. In consequence of the failing 
health of Madam Atzeroth, they visited Philadel- 
phia and Easton, Pa. ; but deriving no benefit from 
change of location at the North, her physician ad- 
vised her to go South. They accordingly went to 
New Orleans, where they remained about one year. 
Madam Atzeroth's health not improving, her at- 
tending physician, a German, proposed a trip to 
Florida. Laying in a supply of provisions and 
medicines, and accompanied by the physician, 
they engaged passage on board the schooner Essex ^ 
a tender for the United States troops stationed at 
Fort Brooke, Tampa, where they arrived in the 
spring of 1843. 

Soon after landing at Tampa, Mr. Atzeroth com- 
menced prospecting for a desirable place to locate. 
After looking about for two or three weeks, he 
concluded to homestead one hundred and sixty 
acres of land on Terraceia Island, and on the 12th 
day of April, 1843, accompanied by his wife, little 
daughter, the German physician and his dog 
Bonaparte, landed on the east side of the island 
about midway of Terraceia Bay, The hammock 
was so dense that the men were compelled to use 



20 Notes from Sun land. 

their axes to clear a space on which to pitch their 
tent. The underbrush and vines were so thick, 
and the progress made by the men so slow, that 
Madam Joe seized an axe and assisted them. This 
was her first attempt at chopping and grubbing in 
Florida. Since that time she has become an ex- 
pert at the business. When the tent was erected 
and dinner prepared, it was eaten with a keen 
relish. From that time forward Madam Joe felt 
new life and strength. Her torpid liver began to 
perform its normal functions, and she forthwith 
discharged the physician and destroyed his medi- 
cines. The doctor went to Key West, where he 
died soon afterward. 

Having become weary of tent-life, Madam Joe 
proposed to her husband the erection of a palmet- 
to hut. Mr. Joe, as the madam always called her 
husband, drove the stakes for the frame and gath- 
ered the palmetto fans or branches. The madam 
mounted the roof and thatched it ; but her work 
was performed so badly that the first shower of 
rain deluged the interior, and its inmates sought 
refuge under the table. The hut was subsequently 
re-thatched, and three of its corners made fast to 
trees, which prevented the wind from blowing it 
down. Soon after the completion of the hut, their 
provisions ran short, and Mr. Joe started in a 
canoe for Tampa to replenish them. On his re- 
turn, adverse winds blew his frail craft around 



Notes from Sunland. 2 1 

Shaw's Point into Palmasola Bay, and becoming 
bewildered, he landed at Sarasota instead of Ter- 
raceia. After being buffeted about by the wind 
and waves for more than a week, he finally reached 
home. During his absence, Madam Joe and her 
child had no companion save the dog Bonaparte. 
The panthers, wild hogs and owls made the nights 
hideous with their screams, growls and hootings. 
One night a raid was made by an owl on the 
chickens roosting on the trees overhanging the 
hut. Madam Joe seized an old musket of the 
Methodist persuasion, which usually went off at 
half-cock, with the intention of frightening away 
the " wild varmints," but it was unloaded. Never 
having loaded a musket, she was in a quandary 
whether to put in first the powder or the shot. 
Luckily, she put in the powder before the shot, 
and stepping to the door of the hut, discharged the 
musket into the tops of the trees. She put in too 
much powder, and like another gun we read about, 
it 

"Bore wide the mark and kicked its owner over." 

The owl escaped that time in consequence of be- 
ing at the wrong end of the musket. It v/as sub- 
sequently killed by Mr. Joe, and peace reigned 
once more among the chickens. Madam Joe sub- 
sequently became an expert with both the shot-gun 
and rifle, and if reports are reliable, her unerring 
aim has caused more than one red-skin to make a 



2 2 Nolcs from Sunland. 

hasty exit to the '' happy hunting-grounds." She 
can also ride a horse astride or otherwise — seldom 
otherwise — like a Camanche. 

Becoming disgusted with their frail palmetto 
hut, Madam and Mr. Joe felled the trees and com- 
menced the erection of a log-pen house, consisting 
of two rooms, with a wide passage running between 
them. As there were no saw-mills in the country, 
boards could not be had at any price. The roof 
of the house was covered with split cedar planks, 
and the interstices between the logs filled with 
moss and clay. A chimney was improvised of 
sticks plastered with mud. Subsequently, glazed 
sash for the windows were imported from New 
Orleans. Meanwhile the axe had not been idle. 
The stately live oaks and graceful palms around 
the house had been felled and burned, the land 
grubbed, and a good-sized vegetable garden was 
in successful cultivation. Fort Brooke, some thirty 
miles distant, offering a good market for their 
surplus produce, they hired a man with a boat to 
transport and sell their vegetables. Although 
bountiful crops rewarded their labor, they were 
not entirely happy. Madam Joe was anxious that 
her only sister, residing in New York, should 
emigrate with her family to Florida. But how 
was the matter to be accomplished without money? 
Where there is a will, there is always a way to 
accomplish things which at first sight seem to be 



Notes from Sun land. 23 

impossibilities. The matter was laid before Col. 
W. W. Belknap, the commander of Fort Brooke, 
who cheerfully advanced the required funds, and 
Mr. Joe left immediately in a schooner for New 
York, via Key West. The voyage was long and 
tedious, but it was accomplished, and in due 
course of time, Mr. Joe returned safely with his 
brother-in-law, wife and child. 

Another trouble now presented itself. The 
Armed Occupation Act having expired previous to 
locating their land on Terraceia, they were com- 
pelled to go to the United States Land Office, at 
Newnansville, one hundred and sixty miles distant, 
to file the requisite papers. The country being 
wild and sparsely settled, Mr. Joe and Mr. Nichols, 
his brother-in-law, were compelled to pack their 
provisions on their backs, which rendered their 
journey wearisome and slow. On the third day 
they reached a cabin, where they remained over 
night. While at breakfast on the following morn- 
ing, most of their provisions were stolen by some 
thieving negroes. The theft not being discovered 
until they stopped at mid-day to lunch, they were 
in a sad plight. They pushed on as fast as possi- 
ble, and late in the evening came to a cabin in- 
habited by very poor people. A scanty supper 
was set before them, which they ate and retired for 
the night. The breakfast-table on the following 
morning wasbountifully supplied with hog, hominy 



24 Notes from Sunland. 

and corn-dodgers. Mr. Nichols having never be- 
fore seen a corn-dodger, took a large mouthful of 
one, and then walking deliberately to the door, 
spat it out. On resuming his seat at the table, 
he requested Mr. Joe, in German, not to eat those 
saw-dust cakes. Mr. Joe, knowing the difference 
between saw-dust and corn-meal, continued to put 
away the dodgers, to the great disgust of his bro- 
ther-in-law, who finished his breakfast on hog and 
hominy. They finally reached Newnansville, 
transacted their business and returned safely home, 
after an absence of about two weeks. 

Soon after the return of her husband from New- 
nansville, Mrs. Nichols gave birth to a child. It 
lived only two hours, and in less than one week 
from its birth its mother followed the little angel 

to 

" The undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
No traveler returns." 

The surviving child, a little girl two years old, was 
adopted by Madam Joe, who reared and educated 
her. She is at this time the wife of Mr. William 
O'Neil, who resides at Palmetto, on the north side 
of the Manatee Bay. 

The money borrowed from Colonel Belknap still 
remained unpaid, which was a source of great trou- 
ble to Madam Joe. She had the inclination, but 
not the means to cancel the debt. The colonel 
proposed to send for his family at the North, and 



Notes fro?n Sunland. 25 

install Madam Joe as housekeeper. The proposi- 
tion was cheerfully acquiesced in ; and early in the 
year 1845, Madam Joe, accompanied by her hus- 
band, daughter and niece, went to Tampa and re- 
sided in the house of Colonel Belknap, at Fort 
Brooke. The Terraceia homestead was left in 
charge of Mr. Nichols and a hired man. The 
colonel's family at that time consisted of his wife, 
two daughters and a son. That son, General W. 
W. Belknap, at present, I believe, a resident of New 
York, made an honorable and enviable record 
during the war of the Rebellion, and was afterward 
Secretary of War during a part of President Grant's 
administration. 

During the eight months Madam Joe resided 
with the family of Colonel Belknap, she frequently 
saw the wily chief, Billy Bowlegs, and other noted 
Seminoles, for whom, to use her own words, she 
'^cooked many a meal.'* Close confinement 
caused a recurrence of her old disease — liver com- 
plaint — and she reluctantly left the hospitable 
house of Colonel Belknap for her homestead on 
Terraceia, where by constant out-door exercise, 
she soon regained her usual health. Even at the 
present day, Madam Joe's universal panacea is 
' ' the grubbing-hoe and elbow-grease. ' ' She prac- 
tices what she preaches, and unlike the medical 
profession, takes her own medicine. Soon after 
the return of Madam Joe and family to Terraceia, 



26 Notes from Sun land. 

Mr. Nichols concluded to go to New Orleans. 
During that year- — 1846 — the yellow fever nearly 
depopulated the city, and Mr. Nichols was proba- 
bly one of its victims, as he has never been heard 
from by his friends since he left Terraceia. 

In the fall of 1846, one of the severest gales that 
ever visited this section of the country passed over 
Tampa, Terraceia, Palmetto and Manatee. Ma- 
dam Joe's house was blown down and all her fur- 
niture destroyed. The hen-house was the only 
structure that survived the storm. The fowls were 
dispossessed of their domicile, and the family oc- 
cupied it until another house was built. 

In 1848, a government official visited this part 
of Florida to examine proofs of claimants to land 
under the Armed Occupation and Homestead 
Acts. On examining Madam Joe's papers, it was 
discovered that two permits had been issued for 
the same number. This error could only be rec- 
tified at the General Land Office in Washington. 
It was deemed advisable by Madam Joe and her 
husband to return to Tampa and remain there until 
the mistake in relation to their homestead could be 
rectified. Mr. Joe hired a man to assist him in 
building a house at Tampa, ^nd they went up the 
Hillsborough River to cut logs and make shingles 
for the structure. In the month of September the 
logs for the house were formed into a raft and the 
shingles placed on it. Everything being in readi- 



Notes f re III SunL.nJ. 27 

ness for a start, a furious gale set in, which de- 
stroyed the raft and scattered the logs and shingles 
for miles along the banks of the river. Having 
gathered the logs and shingles together and 
rafted them down to Tampa, Mr. Joe visited his 
family at Terraceia, where he learned that during 
the late storm his wife, child and niece had taken 
refuge in the house of a friend on another part of 
the island. He returned to Tampa, and his family 
followed soon after. When Madam Joe arrived, 
she did not admire the location her husband had 
selected for the house. The frame was taken down 
and erected on a lot on the town-side of the river, 
and was soon occupied by the family. The prop- 
erty is still owned by Madam Joe, 

Misfortunes, it is said, never come single-handed. 
In the early part of 1849, ^^^- J^^ injured one of 
his feet, and soon after was attacked with chills 
and fever, which, despite medical treatment, con- 
tinued nine months. At this time Madam Joe's 
finances were at a fearfully low ebb ; but being 
equal to the emergency, she cast about for some- 
thing to do whereby she could earn an honest 
penny. She accordingly started a home-made 
beer and cake shop, which being liberally patron- 
ized by the soldiers, soon placed her in easy finan- 
cial circumstances. Her husband at the same 
time kept a sutler's store at Fort Chiconicla. 

About this time a partly-finished house, built by 



2S Notes fro 1)1 Su ft land. 

a friend — Mr. Reece — in Palmetto, was sold by the 
sheriff, and Madam Joe became the purchaser, 
with the hope that Mr. Reece would be able to 
redeem the property. Failing to do so, Madam 
Joe and family left Tampa and located in Palmetto 
in the year 1851. Here they opened a small 
store, in which they did a thriving business. They 
also cultivated their farm on Terraceia Island, and 
by degrees, as their means permitted, stocked it 
with cattle, horses and hogs. Additions were also 
made to their stock of goods, and finally they 
purchased a colored man, who was an excellent 
farm hand, and proved of great service to his 
owners. 

In 1855 another Indian war broke out. A^olun- 
teer companies, home-guards and boat comj^anies 
were organized for protection against Indian in- 
cursions. Many plantations were abandoned and 
homes broken up. Mr. Joe belonged to one of 
the boat companies, and a ten days' scout being 
prolonged to twenty days, it was reported that the 
entire party had been massacred by the Indians. 
During the scout they visited the Indian camps in 
the Everglades, from whence Mr. Joe brought 
away as trophies a silver cup and a spoon belong- 
ing to Billy Bowlegs. The cup was subsequently 
sold to Colonel Jewett, U. S. A. The country 
was in a state of commotion and fever of excite- 
ment until the close of the war, in 1858. During 



IVofcs fro>ii Sun Ian J. 2C) 

these eventful years, Madam Joe stood guard with 
her musket or rifle whenever her services were re- 
quired. She never showed the white feather. 

Peace had scarcely been restored, when the 
civil war of 1 86 1 broke out, and Florida was again 
in a state of anarchy. Mr. Joe enlisted in the 
Confederate service, and served in Tennessee and 
Kentucky. At the close of the war. Madam Joe 
sold her place at Palmetto, with the intention of 
returning to Europe^, but her physician informed 
her that she could not survive a change of climate, 
which induced her to abandon the idea of visiting 
the Fatherland. The family again took up their 
residence on Terraceia, where Mr. Joe died on the 
29th of October, 1871. Madam Joe sold part of 
her Terraceia plantation and moved to Fogarty- 
ville, her present location, in the year 1873. Her 
garden at this place comprises only four acres, but 
nowhere else in Florida can be found so many 
different varieties of trees, plants, vegetables, 
vines, shrubs and flowers. Mrs. William Fogarty, 
the daughter of Madam Joe, with her husband and 
son, reside with the madam. Here, in the year 
1876, was planted a few grains of Mexican coffee, 
received from a neighbor, Mrs. E.^ S. Warner. 
On the 20th of February, 1880, Madam Joe sent 
to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washing- 
ton, the first pound of coffee gi'own in the United 
States, for which she received ten dollars. This 



3© ' JVotcs from Sun! ami. 

spring she has sent to the Agricultural Department, 
at W;ishington, four pounds of coffee, the product 
of two trees. Next year she will have eight coffee 
trees in bearing, and at least one hundred young 
trees in her nursery. As quite a diversity of 
opinion exists in relation to the origin of the seed 
from which the first coffee was grown in the United 
States, I append the following communications 
from Mrs. E. S. Warner, of Manatee, Fla., and 
Dr. A. A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, published 
in the Tampa Tribune, of September 26th, 1880: 

"Manatee, Fla., August joth, jSSo. 
" Dr. Wall : Dear Sir — I inclose a letter from Dr. A. 
A. Russell, of Cordova, Mexico, the gentleman from whose 
plantation the coffee-seed was procured that has been suc- 
cessfully reproduced by Madam Atzeroth here. As the sub- 
ject of coffee-raising in this State is causing considerable 
inquiry, and as this letter contains much valuable informa- 
tion on the subject, I submit it to you for publication, asking 
the favor of having a copy forwarded to the doctor from 
your offfce as soon as issued. Very respectfully, 

" E. S. Warner." 

" Cordova, Mexico, May igth, 1880. 
"Mrs. E. S. W^arner: Madam — It was quite a plea- 
sure to receive your very kind letter of April 1st. I con- 
gratulate you most heartily, and am proud to learn that from 
the seed I sent was produced the first coffee in the States. I 
think I wrote you that the plant requires shade. In this 
climate we prefer to plant in fresh, timbered land ; cutting 
out at first onlv the underjrrowth, and taking: out a few trees 



Notes from Sun land, 3 1 

every year after for two or three years, thus graduating the 
shade and ventilating as appears to be required. The pala- 
tine (or plantain, or banana, as you probably call it) makes 
a good shade, and may be cut out, or under leaves trimmed off 
as may seem to be necessary. Coffee requires a rich, 
vegetable soil, or manure. The berry is fully ripe when 
dark red, but the grain is matured if the berry is picked 
when it has become yellow or only turning red ; however, 
the coffee is of better quality if the berry is fully ripe, that is, 
of a deep or dark red. When gathered, it should be spread 
out at once to dry in the sun. It may be dried on mats, 
scaffolds or platforms of planks or boards. In good or 
favorable weather it requires about three weeks to dry. 
Here it is often dried on the ground. It may be spread 
from two to four inches thick, and should be stirred twice or 
three times a day; and if it should get wet a few times on 
the dryer, before half dry, no harm will be done and the 
coffee not injured in the least, if frequently stirred to prevent 
fermentation. When half dry it should be protected from 
rain and dew. If it has been wet a few times it will be 
more easily cleaned, but if frequently wet it will be of a 
darker color; also much darker, and even black and spoiled, 
if allowed to heat and ferment. It may be pulped by some 
of the pulping machines now in use, the day it is gathered, 
then washed and dried. The pulped coffee will dry in a few 
days, occupies less space in drying, and is of a lighter color, 
which, with you, I presume, are considerations of little im- 
portance at present. 

" You will know the coffee is sufficiently dry when the 
hull crushes readily under the foot. The most simple, and, 
by the way, not a very bad process for cleaning the coffee, 
is the primitive mode of cleaning rice ; that is, to beat it out 
in a deep mortar with a heavy pestle, and as the chaff accu- 
mulates dip out the coffee with a cup in the left hand, pour- 



32 Notes from Suniand. 

ing back into the mortar from the same height, at the same 
time blowing off the chaff with a fan in the right hand, re- 
peating the process until clean. 

** There are a variety of machines for hulling and clean- 
ing coffee, which will be a matter of consideration when the 
production requires it. Now that you have succeeded in 
producing the grain, you will have less difficulty in propa- 
gating from the acclimated seed, which should be thoroughly 
ripe, squeezed out of the pulp and dried in the shade. Hope 
you will continue successfully, and establish plantations of 
importance. Your obedient servant, 

"A. A. Russell." 

The portrait of Madam Joe, forming t\iQ fro7ttts- 
piece of this book, is a truthful likeness. Above 
themediumheightof her sex, with features bronzed 
by a tropical sun and the exposure and hardships 
of a pioneer life, she is nevertheless a well-pre- 
served matron of seventy-four years, with as noble 
and generous a heart as ever pulsated within the 
breast of a human being. She is passionately fond 
of music and waltzing, and can 

" Trip the light fantastic toe" 
as gracefully as a miss of sixteen. May her days 
in the land be prolonged beyond fourscore years 
and ten. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Warners, Mother and Sons — Palmasola City — 
Steam Saw-mill and other Improvements — Sam 
Nichols and his Shell-mound — Palmasola Bay — 
Sarasota Bay and its Surroundings — Snead's Island 
— Shell-mound — Date-palm and Olive Trees — 
Uncle Joe and his Dogs with Glass Eyes — Sapp's 
Point — Palmetto — The Patten and Turner Plan- 
tations — JuDAH P. Benjamin — Oak Hill — Terra- 
ceia Island — Landing of De Soto in 1539. 

Westward of Fogartyville, on the south side 
of the bay, among the most prominent residences, 
are those of the Warners, mother and sons. 
Thence westward, across a bayou, on a sand-spit 
projecting into the bay, stands the steam saw and 
planing-mill of Messrs. W. S. Warner & Co., 
just completed. This mill, wharf and warehouse 
are the nuclei of Palmasola City, which is soon to 
skirt the adjacent sand hills, and cause the sur- 
rounding ^'wilderness to blossom as the rose." 
Mr. Warner is a Bay State Yankee of indomitable 
pluck, and his partner, Mr. J. S. Beach, who re- 
sides at Terre Haute, Ind., controls the money 
bags of a national bank. If capital and pluck 
can build a city, the success of Palmasola may be 



34 Notes fro)ii SiinlaJid. 

set down as assured. Along the bay, west of the 
Warners, are the ranches of Messrs. Sweetzer, 
Burgess, Sykes and Bishop. A few miles further 
west is Shaw's Point, at the mouth of the bay. 
Here, on an immense shell -mound, surrounded by 
hammock and pine land, Mr. Sam Nichols, a native 
of Alabama, has entered a homestead of i6o acres 
of land. Although severely wounded during our 
late ''unpleasantness," Mr. Nichols has beaten 
his musket into a plowshare, his sword into a 
pruning-hook, and, like a good citizen, is earning 
his bread by the sweat of his brow. 

Along the Gulf coast, southward, skirting Pal- 
masola and Sarasota Bays, may be found the hos- 
pitable homes of Messrs. Farrar, Adams, Moore, 
Buckner, Harp, Stephonse, Tyler, Spang, Crow- 
ley, Dorch, Callan, Riggin, Dunham, Smith, 
Helveston, Whitaker, Willard, Bidwell, Ed- 
mondson, C. E, and M. R. Abbe, Liddell, Greer, 
Yonge, Boardman, Young, Lancaster, Conliff, 
Woodworth, Jones, Anderson, Crocker, Hansen, 
Bronson Bros., Glower, Lowe, Webb, Griffith, 
Bacon, Knight, Guptrel and Roberts. 

On the north side of Manatee Bay, at its en- 
trance into Tampa Bay, is Snead's Island, sepa- 
rated from the mainland by a narrow and shallow 
''cut-off" leading into Terraceia Bay, and also 
by a wider and deeper channel opening into 
Tampa Bay, and separating it from Terraceia Is- 



Notes frojn SiinlauJ. 35 

land. Midway of the island, fronting on Mana- 
tee Bay, is a curiosity in the shape of a shell- 
mound or earth-work, crescent-shaped, and some 
forty feet in height. The distance between the 
points of the crescent on the bank of the bay, is 
five hundred feet. On the highest point of the 
mound, and nearly in the centre, stands a frame 
dwelling, somewhat dilapidated, erected by a 
former owner of the place. On the eastern angle 
are two date-palm and two olive trees. The 
former are fifteen inches in diameter and forty 
feet in height. The latter are eighteen inches in 
diameter two feet above the ground, and fifty feet 
in height. Both the olive and date-palms bear 
fruit ; the former in large quantities. On the 
mound in the centre of the crescent, and near the 
house, are two olibanum trees, eighteen inches in 
diameter and fifty feet in height. Was this mound 
an Indian burial place, or was it thrown up by 
the early Spanish invaders as a defense against the 
Natchez, a warlike and semi-civilized tribe of In- 
dians, who, at the time of the Spanish conquest, 
inhabited this part of Florida ? Qiucn sabc ? 

The only human occupants of the island at this 
time are uncle Joe Franklin and his wife, an aged 
couple. Uncle Joe lives in a palmetto hut with a 
shell floor, and with the old 'oman and two glass- 
eyed dogs as companions, 

" His hours in cheerful labor fly." 



36 Notes from Sunlaml. 

Uncle Joe is a character, and all visitors to the 
Manatee should call on him, examine his mam- 
moth wild fig tree and hedge of century plants. 
Mem. Ask him to chain his dogs before you go 
ashore, otherwise the seat of your inexpressibles 
will require repairs. I have been there. 

Eastward, above the Terraceia cut-off, is Sapp's 
Point. Further along, and directly opposite 
Braidentown, is Palmetto, a young town contain- 
ing two stores and a post-office. The reader will 
perceive that Uncle Sam distributes post-offices 
in Florida with a lavish hand. We have three of 
these convenient institutions within a radius of 
one and a half miles — Braidentown, Manatee, 
Palmetto — and Palmasola City, only three miles 
distant, will have one as soon as Postmaster War- 
ner shall build an office to protect the mail matter 
of that growing city. 

Immediately in the rear of Palmetto is a prairie 
of several miles in extent. North-east of the 
town, about one mile distant in the hammock, 
Mr. Hendricks, of Palmetto, has a promising six- 
years-old orange grove, grown from seeds planted 
with his own hands. Mr. Hendricks cultivates 
vegetables between the rwvs of his orange trees, 
and last year he realized several hundred dollars 
by shipping his early tomatoes, cucumbers and 
snap-beans to New York and other Northern 
markets. To Mr. Hendricks belongs the credit 



Notes from Siinland. 37 

of starting the early vegetable boom in the Mana- 
tee region. 

Mr. David Zehner, from Louisiana, has recently- 
purchased a strip of scrub hammock, east of the 
town, where he intends to make the cultivation 
of grapes and strawberries a specialty. He has 
already received several thousand cuttings and 
plants of the choicest varieties. A few miles 
further eastward, you reach the plantation of 
Major W. I. Turner, the god-father of Braiden- 
town, who has forty acres in tomatoes, cucumbers, 
squashes and beans. He has already commenced 
shipping his vegetables to the Northern markets. 

Half a mile east of Major Turner's is the ex- 
tensive plantation of Major George Patten. Gen- 
eral Hiram W. Leffingwell, ex-United States Mar- 
shal for the Eastern District of Missouri, has 
recently jDurchased 200 acres of this land, and is 
negotiating for more. Two of the general's 
sons, with their families and an unmarried nephew, 
are now encamped on the land, and are busily 
engaged in erecting dwelling-houses and the ne- 
cessary out-buildings. The general and his wife 
will arrive later in the season. In addition to the 
cultivation of the various fruits of the citrus 
family, the general will devote his attention to 
general farm crops and the growing of early vege- 
tables for the Northern and Western markets. 
Another St. Louis gentleman, Mr. C. G. B. 



^8 Notes from Sunland. 

Drummond, Assistant U. S. District Attorney, 
has purchased 120 acres of land on the Rogers' ham- 
mock near Oak Hill, on which he will set out an 
orange grove this summer. 

Mr. H. O. Cannon, a California Argonaut, and 
late resident of New Albany, Ind., after having 
spent several winters prospecting Florida, has, 
like a sensible man, concluded to pitch his tent 
on the Patten plantation. With this view, he has 
purchased twenty acres of land, which he has 
commenced grubbing and fencing, preparatory to 
planting an orange and lemon grove. Mr. C. H. 
Walworth, of Milwaukee, has purchased twenty 
acres of land adjoining Mr. Cannon, which he 
will have cleared, grubbed and planted in orange 
and lemon trees this year. 

In ante hclluvi times, the present Patten planta- 
tion was know first as the Gamble, and afterward 
as the Cofield and Davis plantation, and was the 
largest and most thoroughly equipped sugar plan- 
tation in the State of Florida. The owners worked 
200 hands, and had 1,400 acres of sugar-cane in 
one field. Their sugar-mill and refinery contained 
all the modern appliances, and, at the commence- 
ment of the war, was worth half a million dol- 
lars. Soon after the breaking out of hostilities, 
most of the slaves were sent to Louisiana, and work 
on the plantation was abandoned. During the last 
year of the war, a Federal gunboat entered the 



JVofcs from Sun/ami. 39 

Manatee Bay, and a boat's crew, commanded by 
an officer, blew up the sugar-house and set fire to the 
refinery. The destruction was complete ; and to- 
day may be seen the ponderous fly-wheel of the en- 
gine, broken shafts and crumbling walls — sad me- 
mentos of the event. The family mansion, a large 
two-story brick structure, with galleries around 
three sides of both stories, escaped the hand of the 
destroyer. Although bearing the finger-marks of 
time, it is at this day, a substantial structure, and, 
with slight repairs, would weather the storms of 
another century. Connected with this old man- 
sion is a history, now for the first time published. 
Within these walls during the last days of the 
Southern Confederacy, when that fiibric (on paper) 
was fast crumbling to pieces, Judah P. Benjamin, 
a fugitive from justice, and flying for his life under 
the assumed name of Charles Howard, was the 
guest for nearly two months of Captain Archibald 
McNeill, its then occupant. When on that mem- 
orable Sunday, in the spring of 1865, Jeff. Davis 
and his cabinet hastily fled from Richmond, Ben- 
jamin and Breckinridge struck out for the wilds of 
Florida, which seemed to offer a secure retreat. 
Arrived at Gainsville, Breckinridge sought refuge 
on the Atlantic coast, and Benjamin, under the 
guidance of Captain L. G. Leslie, started for the 
Gulf coast, z'/rt; Tampa, and arrived safely at the 
mansion of Captain McNeill. After remaining 



40 Notes from Sunland. 

nearly two months at Captain McNeill's, Benja- 
min was conveyed in a boat to Manatee, and from 
thence to Sarasoto Bay in a horse-cart, by Rev. E. 
Glazier, of Manatee; from thence to Cape Florida 
in a small sail-boat, commanded by Captain Fred. 
Tresca, also a resident of Manatee. At Cape 
Florida a larger boat was procured, and after 
several hair-breadth escapes from Federal gun- 
boats and the perils of the sea. Captain Tresca 
landed his charge safely on one of the islands of the 
Bahama group, and returned to Manatee ^1,500 
richer than when he left home. Benjamin reached 
England safely, where he has acquired fame and 
fortune. Should this page by chance meet his 
eye, he will no doubt be pleased to learn that 
Captain McNeill, past threescore and ten, has re- 
tired from active life and settled in Manatee, sur- 
rounded by a large family. Captain Tresca, or 
Captain ''Fred.," as he is called by his friends, 
lives with his wife and two children on a small 
plantation near Braidentown. Although he counts 
his years away up among the nineties, he is still a 
well-preserved ''old salt." Rev. E. ■ Glazier is 
still a resident of Manatee, and looks as though 
he had renewed his lease of life for another half 
century. Judas betrayed his Master for the paltry 
sum of thirty pieces of silver. Twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars was the price offered by the United 
States Government for the corpus of the fugitive. 



Notes from Sun land. 41 

The example of Judas was not followed by those 
who assisted Benjamin to escape. 

There are more than a thousand acres of the rich 
hammock land belonging to this plantation for 
sale at from ^15 to ^25 per acre, according to 
location. When the fact that it cost originally 
^75 per acre^o clear this land, is taken into con- 
sideration, it will be seen that the price at which 
it is now offered is very low, and places it within 
the reach of persons of small means. The land 
will be sold in lots to suit purchasers. 

Adjoining the grounds of the Patten mansion is 
the residence of Hamet J. Craig, who has a young 
orange grove of three hundred trees and ten acres 
of hammock land under cultivation. Five miles 
further on, in a north-easterly direction, is Oak 
Hill, the former residence of Major W. I. Turner. 
At this place the major has a bearing orange grove 
of several hundred trees, and also one of the most 
promising six-years-old groves of six hundred 
trees to be found in the Manatee region. Adjoin- 
ing Major Turner is the grove of Walter Tresca, 
just coming into bearing, and near by is the young 
grove of Mr. William Gillett. 

Terraceia Island, separated from Snead's Island 
by a narrow channel, is bounded on the west by 
Tampa Bay, on the north by Frog Creek, and on 
the east by Terraceia Bay. This island contains 
several tracts of excellent hammock land, most of 



42 Noti s from Sunland. 

which is under improvement. On this island are 
located the bearing orange groves of Messrs. Hal- 
lock, Lennard and Williams ; ^Messrs. Kennedy, 
Howard, Gifford, Watkins, Hobart, Patten and 
Wyatt are also located on this island. Judge 
Cessna, of Gainesville, has recently purchased a 
plantation on the island, and will.-^soon locate 
there. Other persons on the line of the Transit 
Railroad having become disgusted with frost and 
ice, are seeking homes in the Manatee region. 
On the mainland, on the east side, and about mid- 
way of Terraceia Bay, is the plantation of Mr. 
John Craig. Mr. Craig raises the finest cane and 
has the reputation of making the best sugar in 
Manatee County. 

A short distance north of Terraceia Island, on 
the mainland, Hernando De Soto, fresh from the 
conquest of Peru, where he was associated with 
Francisco Pizarro, landed his troops in the latter 
part of May, 1539. He sailed from Havana on 
Sunday, May i8th, 1539, with his troops embarked 
in five large ships, two caravels and two brigan- 
tines. The disastrous fate of his predecessors in 
Florida cast no gloom on the mind of De Soto,, 
and his assurances of success imparted confidence 
to those who accompanied him. He had never 
been defeated in battle, and was believed by his 
soldiers to be invincible. His officers were men 
of valor and ripe experience, and his troops were 



Notes from Sunland. 43 

well disciplined, a majority of them having served 
in many campaigns, and all were well acquainted 
with Indian warfare. 

His wife, Dona Isabella, did not share his en- 
thusiasm, and desired to accompany him and share 
the dangers she believed he was about to encoun- 
ter ; but De Soto strenuously opposed her wishes, 
and encouraged her to believe that the time of 
reunion was not far distant. The conquest of 
Florida appeared to De Soto to be an easy task, 
from which he could soon return with large acces- 
sions of wealth and glory. 

Contrary and baffling winds kept the squadron 
tossing about in the Gulf of Mexico for several 
days. De Soto and his troops obtained their first 
view of the Land of Flowers on the morning of 
the 25th day of May, and in the afternoon of the 
same day they came to anchor about two leagues 
from the shore. The shoals which extended along 
the coast prevented the ships from coming nearer. 
They had, in the meantime, been discovered by 
the natives, who had kindled beacon-fires along 
the beach, now known as Pinellas, as signals to 
collect their forces and be in readiness to repel 
their enemies. De Soto's vessels were anchored 
off the mouth of Tampa Bay, called by the Span- 
iards the Bay of Espiritu Santo. 

The Natchez, who inhabited the neighboring 
country, were governed by a chief named Ucita, 



44 Notes from Sun land. 

whose hatred of the Spaniards is easily explained. 
When Pamphilo de Narvaez visited this region in 
1528, he was kindly received and hospitably en- 
tertained by the Chief Ucita, and a treaty of 
peace between them was formed ; yet, on a very 
slight pretense, the wily and bloodthirsty Pam- 
philo caused the chief's nose to be cut off, and 
his aged mother to be torn to pieces by dogs ! 
Hence, the reason why Ucita displayed implaca- 
ble resentment in his behavior to De Soto and his 
companions in arms. 

Thus, it will be seen that from the earliest his- 
tory of our country, the aborigines have been 
treated with the most impolitic and unchristian- 
like barbarity ; and it is highly probable that 
much of that ferocity which characterizes the In- 
dians of the far West at this time, may be ascribed 
to the harsh and merciless treatment which their 
ancestors received from the early Spanish ex- 
plorers, who acted on the principle that the In- 
dians had no rights that a white man was bound to 
respect. 

Wishing to avoid a collision with the Indians 
at that time, De Soto weighed anchor, and pro- 
ceeded with his fleet two leagues further up the 
bay, where he disembarked his troops in boats. The 
place where he landed was on the eastern shore 
of Hillsborough Bay, above the mouth of the 
Little Manatee River, and near the line which 
separates Hillsborough and INIanatce Counties. 



Notes from Sun/and. 45 

The Indians being anxious to get rid of De Soto 
and his followers, informed them that £1 Dorado, 
for which they were seeking, was further north- 
ward. De Soto sent his ships back to Havana, 
and commenced his toilsome march overland, 
which ended with his death and burial in the 
Mississippi River, on the 5th day of June, 1542, 
three years and one month after the date of his 
arrival in Tampa Bay. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"Sunnyside" — Orange AND Banana Groves — Lemons 
AND Limes— Coffee Trees and Pine- apples — Cali- 
fornia Grapes — Quality of the Land — Mode of 
Cultivation — Florida, Past, Present and Future — 
Increased Production — Better and Cheaper Trans- 
portation — Interrogatories and Answers. 

Having given the reader a hasty outline of the 
Manatee region, I will add a brief I'esuine of my 
personal experience at ^'Sunnyside" during the 
past eighteen months. On my arrival in Braiden- 
town, in the fall of 1879, '^Y \2^\di was a ''howling 
wilderness." At this time I have a young orange 
grove of six hundred trees, sixty lemon, fifteen 
lime, ten guava, half a dozen olive, two soft-shell 
almond, twenty coffee, four each Japan plum and 
persimmon, two pomegranate, two cocoa-nut and 
four Le Conte pear trees, all of which are growing 
luxuriantly. I also have one acre in bananas and 
sixty pine-apple pfants, both of which will bear 
fruit next year. Around the fence inclosing my 
house lot, I have sixty California grape-vines of 
the choicest varieties, viz. : Flaming Tokay, 
White Muscat of Alexandria, Mfssion and Rose 
of Peru. The vines are looking well, and will 
bear fruit next year. 

46 



Notes from Suuland. 49 

The land on which I am located is spruce-pine, 
interspersed with water-oak and scrub palmetto, 
which would be pronounced by the average Flo- 
ridian worthless. I had at the commencement, 
and still have, abiding faith in the white sand of 
Florida with a mulatto sub-soil. No matter how 
white the surface, if underlied by a mulatto or 
yellow sub-soil, the citrus family will thrive. The 
foliage of my young trees is dark green, and their 
vigorous growth astonishes the '' crackers," who 
predicted a failure. Owing to the mildness of 
the climate — my location being exempt from frost 
— niy trees grew all last winter. My orange trees 
are set in parallel rows, thirty feet apart each 
way ; the lemon and lime trees twenty-five feet 
apart ; the bananas twelve feet, and the pine- 
apples two feet apart. I hoe my grove every two 
months, and plow it four times a year. Thus, by 
keeping the soil constantly tickled with the hoe, 
my trees laugh with a bountiful foliage. What I 
have done, can be performed by others. There 
is no secret about the matter. We welcome im- 
migrants from the frigid North, from tli.e prairies 
of the West, and from the lands beyond the sea. 
To all we say, come and tarry with us. 

Florida, the first State belonging to the Union, 
discovered and settled by Europeans, has, during 
the past 350 years, been hustled about from pillar 
to post like a shuttle-cock. The repeated Indian 



50 Notes from Sunland. 

wars from 1816 to 1858, rendered life so insecure, 
that the early settlers literally carried their lives 
in their hands. Is it then a matter of surprise 
that Florida is so sparsely populated ? Mr. J. S. 
Adams, former Commissioner of Immigration, 
truthfully remarks: ''The wonder truly is," not 
that she has not attained a more flourishing con- 
dition, but that she exists at all, and that her 
boundless forests, her lovely rivers and her beau*- 
tiful lakes are not fast locked in the silent embrace 
of a moveless desolation." Since slavery, which 
rested like an incubus of original sin on the soil 
of Florida, has been removed, immigration has 
been pouring in from the North and the West, 
and from the isles of the ocean. Germany, Italy, 
France and England have each furnished their 
quota, and the forests along the line of the rail- 
roads, as well as those accessible by steamboats, 
are beginning to show the effects of an advanced 
civilization. The gigantic undertaking of drain- 
ing Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, to- 
gether with the construction of a ship canal, con- 
necting the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of 
Mexico, by Mr. Hamilton Disston, of Philadel- 
phia, and his coadjutors, is proof positive that anew 
era is beginning to dawn on the Land of Flowers, 
and, ere many years, the southern portion of the 
State will be one vast orange grove, interspersed 
with the guava, lemon, lime, pine-apple and ba- 



Notes from Sunlaud. 5 1 

nana. I hear the skeptic say: '^ You will over- 
stock the market, and your fruit will not pay the 
cost of transportation." The orange par excel- 
lc7ice can be grown only in the soil of Florida, 
therefore competition with foreign countries need 
not be feared. Florida will soon be able to sup- 
ply the cities of the Mediterranean with a superior 
fruit to that grown on their own shores, and more 
cheaply. Increased production and transj^orta- 
tion will cause a corresponding reduction in 
freight, and also insure greater and better facili- 
ties in the modes of transportation. There will 
also be a large reduction in price to the consumer, 
which will enable the man of limited means — in 
other words, the poor man — to indulge with the 
millionaire in the daily luxury of the golden apple 
of the Hesperides — the Florida orange. The 
above may be deemed by some persons chimeri- 
cal, but time, the great arbiter of events, will solve 
the problem. 

By every mail I am in receipt of letters asking 
all manner of questions in relation to the climate, 
soil, productions, etc., of this part of Florida. 
At first I cheerfully complied with the requests of 
my numerous correspondents, but the novelty has 
worn off, and the task has become slightly mo- 
notonous. Recently, I received a four-page cai> 
sheet letter from a gentleman in Utah Territory, 
to which was appended seventeen interrogatories 



52 Notes from Sun land. 

in relation to the Gulf Coast of South Florida. 
That straw broke the camel's back, and, in reply 
to the following question: ''I see by the last 
census that Manatee County has a population of 
over 4,000, and not a death recorded for 18S0. 
Do people ever die there?" I wrote immediately, 
''Hardly ever. When we want to start a grave- 
yard, we kill a man." I am firmly impressed 
with the belief that my Mormon correspondent, 
with a ''family of ten persons," will not immi- 
grate to the Land of Flowers. Below will be found 
twenty-five questions in relation to Florida, from 
correspondents the "wide world over," with an- 
swers appended : 

ist. "At any time of the year do you have 
severe storms of thunder and lightning?" 

During the rainy season, thunder showers, ac- 
companied by lightning, frequently occur, but 
they are not more severe than in the Northern and 
Western States. 

2d. "Are venomous reptiles numerous?" 

During my residence and travels in Florida, I 
have never seen a rattlesnake ; I have seen a few 
moccasin, garter, coachwhip and blacksnakes. 
The two latter are harmless, and are seldom killed 
by the natives. Alligators are not numerous in 
this vicinity, and are comparatively harmless. 
Scorpions and centipedes are seldom met with. 
Their sting is no more severe than that of a bee. 



Notes from Sun land. 53 

3d. "Is the land about Braidentown sandy or 
clayey ?" 

The land on the margin of the bay is sandy ; 
further back in the hammock, the soil is dark gray 
and chocolate color, underlied with clay and lime- 
stone. 

4th. ''Are the people mostly Northern?" 

Like an Englishman's favorite beverage, they 
are 'alf-and-'alf. 

5th. ''What is the name of your nearest town 
of any importance?" 

Have no towns of "importance " in this section 
of the country; they are in the womb of time — 
not hatched yet. 

6th. "What is the character of your society?" 

Mixed. 

7th. " Do you consider Florida as healthy as 
California ?" 

I consider this Manatee region the sanitarium 
of the world. A more healthful spot cannot be 
found on God's footstool. 

8th. "Do malarial fevers prevail in your section 
any time during the year?" 

In the rich, low hammock lands, where vegeta- 
tion is rank, malarial fevers exist in the fall of the 
year. Chills and fever here yield more readily to 
proper medical treatment than in the West. Pine 
land is exempt from malaria. 

9th. "Docs the summer heat prove enervat- 
ing?" 



5 4 Notes from Sunland. 

That depends on a man's constitution. If born 
tired, yes. 

loth. ''Is it true that the summer weather with 
you is more pleasant — less oppressive — than at the 
North?"' 

Yes; the thermometer rarely registers more than 
96°. It reached that point only twice last summer. 

I ith. " Are the nights in summer always cool ?' ' 

Generally ; sometimes cooler than in the winter. 

12th. '' Can you work out of doors during the 
day in summer time ?' ' 

Yes, when it does not rain. I have not seen a 
day too hot to work out of doors since my arrival 
in Florida. 

13th. '' Do the crops of vegetables and grass 
burn under the summer sun ?" 

We don't raise vegetables in the summer. Our 
vegetables are grown in the winter and spring, 
when the land at the North is locked fast in the 
embrace of frost and ice. The grass here is very 
nutritious, and large herds of cattle fatten on it. 
This section of country supplies Cuba with beef. 

14th. "Are insects — fleas and mosquitoes — 
more troublesome than at the North?" 

Fleas sometimes make it lively with us; but 
there are fewer mosquitoes in this locality than in 
a majority of the Northern States. 

15th. '' Do you consider Manatee County one 
of the best to settle in?" 



Notes from Sunland. 55 

It suits me better than any other part of Florida. 
You might go further and fare worse. 

i6th. '*Do you think the Gulf Coast equal to 
the Atlantic Coast for climate, health, etc.?" 

Yes ; far superior. 

17th. ''What is the price of land in your sec- 
tion?" 

That depends upon quality and location. Here, 
in the settlement of Braidentown, land is selling 
at from $2^ to ^100 per acre. ' A short distance 
back of the town, pine land can be purchased at 
from ^1.50 to ^5 per acre j and hammock land at 
^10 per acre. Across the bay, nearly opposite 
Manatee, on the Patten plantation, good ham- 
mock land, once under cultivation, can be pur- 
chased at from ^15 to ^25 per acre, according to 
location. This land is being rapidly metamor- 
phosed into vegetable gardens, whose products — 
tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, etc. — reach the 
Northern markets during the month of March. 

1 8th. ''What are the business prospects for a 
new-comer?" 

That will depend a great deal on the "new- 
comer." Come, investigate and judge for your- 
self. 

19. " Can sugar-cane be grown to advantage in 
your neighborhood ? and what amount of sugar 
can be made to the acre?" 

The Manatee region is the natural home of the 



56 Notes from Sunland.- 

sugar-cane. Here it tassels, and consequently 
fully matures.' Florida is the only- State of the 
Union in which the cane tassels. When the Co- 
field and Davis, now Patten plantation, was in 
full operation, the average product was two hogs- 
heads of sugar to the acre. The cane here ra- 
toons from six to eight years. 

20th. '^ What is the cost of clearing land ?" 

That depends on the quality of the land. The 
average pine land can be cleared and grubbed at 
from ^10 to $20) per acre. Hammock land will 
cost double that price. 

2 1 St. *^ Can lumber be had on the Manatee, and 
if so, at what price?" 

Heart-pine lumber, suitable for fencing or 
building purposes, can be had here at ^15 per M. 
Light wood posts can be purchased at ^10 per 
hundred. 

22d. ** What is the price of labor in your vicin- 
ity?" 

Colored laborers can be hired at from ^15 to 
^20 per month, with board or rations. The price 
is j^i per day when the laborer boards himself. 

23d. "Are fish, oysters and game plentiful?" 

Our rivers and bayous are literally alive with 
mullet — the mackerel of the South. Sea-trout 
(black bass), jack-fish, sheepshead, red-fish, angel- 
fish, drum and pompino can also be had in abund- 
ance in the water around Palm Key, at the mouth 



Notes from Sunland. 5 7 

of the bay. Oysters and clams of a superior 
quality can be had in Terraceia and Sarasoto Bays. 
Deer, squirrels, quail and wild turkeys abound in 
the adjoining hammocks. 

24th. '^ Can you refer me to any person in your 
vicinity whose health has been benefited by the 
climate?" 

Yes ; several. Rev. Edmund Lee, of Manatee, 
arrived here forty- five years ago, a confirmed in- 
valid ; in fact, nearly gone with pulmonary con- 
sumption. On his first arrival he was so weak 
that it required considerable effort to pull a mullet 
off a grid-iron. The healthfulness of the climate, 
together with out-door exercise and a clear con- 
science, have enabled him to fight the flesh and 
the devil successfully to the present time. He is 
at this time a well-preserved patriarch of seventy- 
two years; has outlived two wives, and bids fair 
to remain many years longer on this side of Jor- 
dan. 

Mr. John M. Helm, residing some three miles 
south-east of Braidentown, arrived from Windsor, 
Ind., about four years since. He also was nearly 
gone with consumption. One lung was hepatized, 
and on the other a tubercle formed, and dis- 
charged after his arrival here. Physicians at the 
West pronounced his case hopeless — beyond the 
reach of medicine — and recommended the cli- 
mate of Florida as a last resort. He is now a well 



58 Notes from Sunland. 

man, and can hoe more orange trees in a day, and 
hoe them better, than any man I know in Florida. 

Two years ago I arrived here, clad in porous- 
plasters, suffering with chronic rheumatism. Two 
months later I was as frisky as a lamb in spring 
time. I am convinced that my old complaint has 
left me never to return, so long as I remain here. 
I could record other cases, but the above must 
suffice for the present. 

25th. ** State the most direct route to Braiden- 
town." 

By rail to Cedar Key, the terminus of railroad 
communication, thence by the boats of the Tampa 
Steamship Company to this place. A boat leaves 
Cedar Key on Monday and Friday afternoon of 
each week, and arrives at Braidentown early on 
the following morning. Fare, ^8. The above is 
the advertised programme, but it is sometimes 
changed to suit wind and weather. Captains 
Jackson and Doane are thorough seamen, and do 
everything in their power to render passengers 
comfortable. Whatever may be the opinion of 
travelers in regard to the speed and accommoda- 
tions of the boats, they will unanimously agree 
that the fare — $8 for a distance of less than 100 
miles — is first-class. A line of light draught, 
modern-built and comfortably fitted-up steam- 
boats, between Cedar .Key and Braidentown, 
would be liberally patronized. Shall we have the 
boats? Echo repeats the question. 



CHAPTER V. 

Florida Letter Published in a California Paper- 
Editorial Remarks — The " Fountain of Youth " — 
The Manatee River and its Surroundings — Tropi- 
cal Fruits — Game and Fish — The Sportsman's Par- 
adise — Letter to the Editress of the " Philadel- 
phia Sunday Times" — The Land of Promise — 
Sunstroke and Hydrophobia Unknown — Cool 
Nights During the "Dog Days" — Preparing the 
Land and Planting an Orange Grove — The Flo- 
rida Orange — Route to the Manatee — Climate of 
THE Gulf Coast of South Florida — Record of 
Thermometer and Rainfall for the Year 1880 — 
No Frost — Report in Relation to the Effects of 
the Freeze on the Atlantic Coast in December 
Last. 

As THE following letters and communications 
have a direct bearing on the Manatee region, the 
reader will pardon their republication. Among 
the chaff perchance may be found a few grains of 
information that will pay for the perusal. The 
first letter was written to a personal friend in the 
city of New York, who forwarded it to the San 
Francisco Examiner. It was first published in that 
paper with the following editorial remarks : 

" Old Californians are not unfamiliar with the name of Mr. 
Samuel C. Upham, an editor upon this coast in the early 

m. 59 



6o Notes from Sunland. 

days, and, of late, the author of a work entitled Voyage to 
Calif 01-nia via Cape Iloni, and Scenes in El Dorado in 1849 
and 1850. We are permitted to copy a letter from that gen- 
tleman, written in his humorous style, and addressed to an 
old Californian friend, which may prove of interest to others." 

Philadelphia, June i6th, iSyg. 

Friend C : I owe you a letter, and the following is 

what I have to say : You are aware that I went vSouth last 
winter for the benefit of my health, and that I returned in the 
spring as frisky as a lamb. The late hot weather has pulled 
me down considerably, and I sigh for the Land of Flowers, 
where Ponce de Leon searched for. the fountain of youth, and 
Upham found it. I was so charmed with the climate of the 
Gulf Goast of South Florida, that, while there last winter, I 
purchased 225 acres of land on the Manatee River, fifty 
miles south of Tampa, and Mrs, U. and myself are going 
down to that land of promise the coming fall, to plant an 
orange grove, and sit under our own vine, orange and euca- 
lyptus trees. It is a delightful country, away down below 
" frost line," where the pine-apple, banana, guava, sapadillo, 
pomegranate, date, cocoa-nut, orange, lime and lemon grow 
almost spontaneously. The rivers are overflowing with fish, 
and the forests are overrun with game. Roasted wild turkeys 
run about with carving-knives and forks sticking in their 
backs, and ask to be eaten. The country now is a trifle wild, 
but will soon become tamed and civilized. The people are 
hospitable, and welcome all classes of strangers, with the ex- 
ception of "carpet-baggers." They have been tried and 
found wanting. 

I shall locate in the village— if two stores and four houses 
can be ■ dignified ' by that name— of Braidentown, Manatee 
County, Florida. The place is scarcely twelve months old, 
but is bound to be heard from — after I locate there. The 



Notes f)-oi]i Sunland. 6 1 

climate is delightful — sort of an earthly Paradise. The ther- 
mometer during the winter, months .ranges from 70° to 75°, 
and in summer rarely exceeds 90°, with a sea-breeze blowing 
constantly either from the Atlantic or the Gulf. The nights 
in summer are. invariably. cool, and one can lie comfortably 
under blankets during " dog days.' 

I do not expect to make money in Florida, but I do 
pect to enjoy better health than in this city ; hence the reason 
of my exodus. I shall, first off, plant an orange grove of 500 
trees, which, in eight years, barring accidents, ought to yield me 
a handsome revenue. Should I " shuffle off this mortal coil " 
before these orange trees commence bearing, I shall feel dis- 
appointed — that's all. I think the change will give me a 
renewed lease of life ; and, as I intend to plant three-years-old 
trees, I think the chances are rather in my favor. The Good 
Book says : " What does it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own life?" I am not prepared to "hand 
in my checks" just yet; hence my change of base. I have 
been watching and praying the past four or five years for the 
"good time coming " to put in an appearance, but it has not 
arrived, and will not, I fear, during my sojourn in this vale 
of tears. I have a mortal dread of the poor-house. In Florida 
that institution is unknown. My eldest son will take chai-ge 
of my store and laboratory in this city, so the business will 
go on without interruption. As I have spun out this letter to 
a great length, I will say domino. 

Truly yours, 

S. C. Upham. 

The following letter was published originally 
in Taggart's Philadelphia SnndayTiines, under 
:the following caption : '' Life in Florida. Inter- 
esting letter from Samuel C. Upham, formerly of 



62 Notes from Simian d. 

Philadelphia, but now located in Florida, ad- 
dressed to our lady editress. Hints to those who 
may wish to visit the Flowery Land." 

SuNNYsiDE Cottage, 
Braidentown, Fla., Jimc 8th, 1880. 

My Dear Mrs. Bladen: In the Sunday Times of the 
30th ult., you say : 

" Mr. Samuel C. Upham, whose popular songs and Avon- 
derful California experiences render him a Philadelphia celeb- 
rity, has a large plantation near Jacksonville." 

It is pleasing to know, when one is far away, that he is not 
entirely forgotten by his friends ; but you are slightly mistaken 
when you say I own a large orange plantation near Jack- 
sonville. I am located on the Manatee River, some eight 
miles above its entrance into Tampa Bay, on the Gulf coast 
of South Florida, in latitude 27j^°, and below "frost line." 
I visited Jacksonville and all the towns and landings on the 
St. Johns, Flalifax and Matanzas Rivers, and also " did" the 
Suwanee pretty thoroughly befoi-e locating in Braidentown. 
I prefer this part of Florida to the Atlantic coast for the fol- 
lowing reasons : Ileathfulness of climate, pui'ity of water 
and immunity from frost and insects. My health has im- 
preved wonderfully since' my arrival in the Land of Flowers, 
and I am pretty thoroughly convinced that I have obtained a 
new lease of life. The sea breezes that fan my brow at 
morning, noon and night, act as a tonic on my enfeebled con- 
stitution, and I am daily gaining strength and muscle. I have 
to-day worked six hours in my banana grove, with the ther- 
mometer at 90° in the shade, without experiencing any in- 
convenience from the heat. The heat is so modified by the 
constant sea breeze that one can work in the sun at all hours 
of the day and at all seasons of the year. Sunstroke and 



Notes front Sun la mi. 6^ 

hydrophobia are unknown here. This statement can be talcen 
luitJioui salt. In midsummer the nights are invariably cool. 
Blankets at night are the rule, not the exception. This much 
about location and climate ; now, a few words about that 
orange grove. 

My ranch is new, and consequently rather crude. When I 
located here in November last, a large portion of it was a 
" howling wilderness." Since that time, I have felled the 
trees, piled the logs, burned the brush, grubbed and fenced 
fifteen acres, on ten acres of which I am now setting out 500 
two-years-old sweet seedling orange trees, which I hope to 
live long enough to see bear fruit. Some two months since, 
I set out 200 banana plants, and they are doing remarkably 
well ; many of the stalks are six feet in height. They will bear 
fruit in about eighteen months. I also have a patch of sixty 
pine-apple plants which will bear fruit next year. I have a 
few coffee and tea plants, Japan plum and persimmon, pome- 
granate, almond and olive trees that are growing luxuriantly. 
I brought with me from Philadelphia, half a dozen cocoa- 
nuts, which I planted on the 1st of November last, and had 
given up all hope of ever seeing them sprout, when, to my 
great surprise, some two weeks since, two of them threw up 
sprouts. They are now one foot high, and are growing vig- 
orously. The guava thrives admirably here. I have several 
trees, and expect soon to luxuriate on guava jelly of my own 
manufacture. I will send you a few sample boxes. 

Have you ever eaten a Florida orange, fresh plucked, that 
ripened on the tree? If not, visit Florida, and enjoy the 
greatest luxury of your life. It is the fruit /ar excellence — 
fit food for the gods. I have, in the course of my somewhat 
eventful life, eaten oranges in the groves of the Mediterra- 
nean, South America, Mexico and the West Indies, but none 
can compare with the orange grown in this State. Our soil 
is peculiarly adai)ted to the growth and maturity of the per- 



64 Notes fro)]i Sunland. 

feet orange. No other soil can produce it. The West India 
and Louisiana seedling orange tree is wonderfully improved 
by being transplanted in Florida soil. South Florida will, 
ere long, be one vast orange grove, and will supply the world 
with her incomparable fruit. She will supply the Mediterra- 
nean ports with better oranges than can possibly be raised in 
that country. Won't that be "carrying coals to Newcastle?" 
I may not live to see the above prediction verified, but there 
are persons living at this time who will. 

If any of your numerous friends think it would be a good 
thing to have an orange grove, advise them to visit the Gulf 
coast of South Florida before locating elsewhere. Also tell 
them to drop in at Braidentown. They may go further and 
fare worse. The most direct route to this place is by rail to 
Cedar Key, the present terminus of railroad communication, 
thence by steamer down the coast. The mail steamers leave 
Cedar Key twice a week for this place and Tampa. Leave 
Cedar Key at 4 o'clock P. M. on Monday and Friday of each 
week, and arrive at Braidentown at 7 o'clock the following 
morning. An revoir. S. C. UphaM. 

The following communication was published in 
the Florida Ag7'lculiurist in January last, under 
the caption of the '' Climate of the Gulf Coast of 
South Florida. ' ' 

Having kept a record of the state of the thermometer at 
6 o'clock A. M., 12 o'clock M. and 6 o'clock P. M. at Brai- 
dentown, Manatee County, Florida, from the 1st day of Jan- 
uary to the 31st day of December, 1880, inclusive, I herewith 
inclose you a synopsis of the same for publication in the 
Agriculturist, with the hope that it may interest your numer- 
ous readers, especially those in the Northern and Western 
States who are seeking homes in 

The land of' the orange and guava. 
The pine-apple, date and cassava. 



Notes from Suuland. 



6s 



I also send a statement of the rainfall for the year 1 880. 



Temperature. 

Average temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., . . . 71^^ 

Average temperature at 12 o'clock M., . . . §3/^° 

Average temperature at 6 o'clock P. M., . . - I^Y^^ 
Highest temperature at 12 o'clock M., July ist and 

August 26th, 96° 

Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., Dec, 31st, . 38° 

Rainfall. 



January, . 
February, 
March, . 
April, . . 
May, . . 
June, . . 
July, . . 
August, . 
September, 
October, . 
November, 
December, 



Total. 



104 



188 






5 


19 


12 


3 


24 


5 


3 


24 


7 


I 


29 


I 


12 


4 


27 


18 


8 


22 


1-2 


6 


25 


18 


8 


23 


13 


15 


15 


10 


19 


12 


3 


15 


15 


6 


^7 


14 



177 



Rainfall during year, 69 J^ inches. 

At least one-half the days classed as " cloudy and partly 
cloudy" were clear one-half of the day, and a majority of 
the "rainy days" were clear three-fourths of the day. Dur- 



66 Notes from Sunland. 

ing the gale on the 29th and 30th of last August, which was 
so destructive on the Atlantic coast of the State, rain fell 
here almost uninterruptedly for nearly forty-eight hours, but 
the wind did little or no damage. The rainfall during the 
two days was six and one-half inches, the heaviest of the 
season. I have resided here during the past fourteen months, 
and, up to this time (January 7th, 1881), there has been no 
frost, and my tropical fruits and plants have grown luxu- 
riantly every month of the year. The year just closed, in its 
dying throes, kicked the mercury in the thermometer down 
to 38°, and a slight frost occurred on the opposite side of the 
Manatee River, and also in the hammock four or five miles 
south-east of Braidentown, The water protection — ^being 
surrounded on three sides by the aqueous fluid — has rendered 
Braidentown exempt from^ost. 

Although the rainfall of 1880 has been some nine inches 
in excess of the average rainfall in this State, I have passed 
one of the most agreeable summers of my life. While the 
denizens of the St, Johns and Atlantic coast are shivering in 
the chilling blasts of winter, we on the Gulf coast of South 
Florida are basking in the sun, with a temperature of 65° at 
6 o'clock A. M., 75° at 12 o'clock M. and 70° at 6 o'clock 
P. M. If any locality north of latitude 27^° can present a 
more favorable record, Braidentown will yield the palm. 
Nous verrons. 

S. C. Upham. 
SuNNYSiDE Cottage, 

Braidentown, Fla., Jan. 7th, 1S81. 

The following report, now for the first time 
printed, explains itself: 



Notes from Su nla mi. 6 7 

SuNNYsiDE Cottage, 

Braidentown, Fla., Feb. ^tJi, jSSi. 

D. H. Elliott, Esq., 

Sec. " Florida Frtdt Gro^uers' Association^'' 
Jacksonville, Fla., 

Dear Sir : In the Report of the Proceedings of the 
Eighth Annual Meeting of the " Florida Fruit Growers' As- 
sociation," held in Jacksonville on the 27 ult., and published 
in the Daily Union of that city on the following morning, 
the annexed resolution was published, with the name of your 
humble servant appended as one of the committee : 

" Resolved, That a committee be appointed to investigate 
the effects of the late freeze on the orange and other fruits 
and vegetables ; said committee to report to the secretary at 
Jacksonville at the earliest practicable moment." 

Having received no official notice of my appointment to 
serve on the aforesaid committee, I have resolved myself into 
a committee of one, and have the honor to respectfully report 
as folloM's : 

The old and trite aphorism — " If the mountain will not 
come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain " — 
seems peculiarly applicable to the above resolution. Ergo, 
if the orange and other fruits of the citrus family will not 
thrive 'mid frost and ice, cultivate them in a more genial 
climate. "With the experience of last fall and the present 
winter before me, together with a careful investigation of the 
climatology of Florida during the past fifty years, I have 
come to the conclusion that the fruits comprising the citrus 
family cannot be successfully cultivated in this State north of 
the 28th parallel of latitude, and the sooner and more widely 
this fact is promulgated, the better it will be for all persons 
interested or about to become interested in this laudable and 
growing industry. The fact that the late freeze killed the 



6S Notes fro7n Sun land. 

scale insects on the orange trees in middle and north Florida, 
is cold comfort for those engaged in orange culture. There 
are fruits better adapted to the climate of Florida north of 
latitude 28° than the orange, lemon, lime, guava, banana and 
pine-apple. Why, then, persist in endeavoring to cultivate 
those fruits with so dim a prospect of success ? It is kicking 
against the pricks, hoping against hope. In conclusion, plant 
your orange, lemon, lime and banana groves below the 28th 
parallel of latitude, tickle the soil constantly with the hoe, 
and success will crown your efforts. So mote it be. 

S. C. Upham. 



Notes from Sunland. 



69 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentown^ 
Florida, for the month of January, 1880, with Remarks 
in relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ . 


•tI 


^ 








Date. 




!' 


"on; 






Remarks. 


I 


6^ 


80 


76 


E. 


i/b in. 


CloudyA.M., clear P.M. 


2 


64 


78 


76 


E. 




Clear. 


3 


68 


82 


74 


E. 




A. M. clear, P. M. cloudy. 


4 


64 


80 


77 


E. 




Clear with strong E. wind. 


5 


66 


80 


74 


S.E. 




Clear A. M., cloudy P. M. 


6 


64 


80 


74 


E. 




Clear. 


7 


62 


80 


72 


N. W. 




<< 


8 


62 




70 


W. 




Cloudy. 


9 


62 


82 


72 


W. 




Clear. 


10 


61 


84 


75 


E. 




" 


II 


62 


82 


72 


E. 




'< 


12 


62 


82 


74 


E. 




" 


13 


64 


74 


70 


N.E. 





" 


14 


.S« 


78 


73 


E. 




" 


15- 


S8 


78 




S. 




" 


16 


55 


86 


68 


E. 




" 


17 


S8 


78 


72 


W. 




" 


18 


55 


76 


66 


N. W. 




" 


19 


52 


74 


70 


E. 




" 


20 


^^ 


78 


68 


S.W. 




" 


21 


s6 


78 


70 


s. 




Cloudy. 


22 


64 


76 


72 


s. 


2 in. 


Rain A. M., clear P. M. 


23 


6^ 


82 


56 


w. 


^/8 in. 


" " " " 


24 


54 


S8 


58 


N.W. 


%in. 


Clear A. M., rain P. M. 


25 


S8 


73 


70 


E. 




Cloudy. 


26 


71 


78 


70 


S. W. 


i/o in. 


Rain A. M., clear P. M. 


27 


64 


68 


62 


w. 




Cloudy. 


28 


58 


66 


63 


N. W. 




" 


29 


58 


80 


72 


E. 




Clear. 


30 


63 


86 


70 


S.E. 




" 


31 


62 


80 


70 


W. 






Sums, 


1,788 


2,315 


2,168 




3^in- 




Av'ge 


57^3 


74% 


70 









Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 19th inst 52° 

Highest " 12 " M., i6th and 30th insts 86° 



70 



Notes from Sun/and. 



meteorological; 

Record of the Theruiometcr and Rainfall at Braidento7vn, 
Florida, for the month of February, 1880, with Remarks 
in relation to Wind and Weather. 



Date. 






opt; 

VO 




3 

c 


Remarks. 


I 
2 
3 

7 
8 

9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 

17 
18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 

29 


62 

66 

56 
52 
55 
62 
60 
58 

66 

ti 

64 
63 

62 
67 

5^i 

60 
62 

68 


8l 

70 
72 
80 
69. 
74 
80 
74 
86 
83 
82 

79 
80 
74 
78 
82 
86 

77 
76 

I? 
80 
80 
88 
82 
87 


63 

6^^ 
58 
74 
62 
64 

?8 

74 
74 

i 

76 
•74 
70 
72 
70 

66 
69 
70 
72 
74 
74 
72 
74 


N.W. 

s. 

N.W. 
S. E. 

E. 

E. 

E. 

W. 

E. 

w. 

E. 

w. 

S. 

s. 

N.E. 

E. 

E. 
S.W. 
N.W. 

E. 

w. 
w. 
w. 

E. 
S. E. 

S. 
N.E. 

w. 

S. E. 


I in. 


c 

R 

W 

c 

R 
C 

CI 

CI 
R. 

CI 


oudy. [all day. 
ain at night. Strong wind 
ind has blown a gale all day 
ear A. M., cloudy P. M. 
ain during night, clear all 
oudy. [day. 
ear. 

ear. Wind blowing a gale, 
lin during night, cloudy all 
ear. [^^^y. 


Sums, 
Av'ge 


1,744 
60/8 


2,303 
79K 


2,034 
70/8 




ii^i.i. 







Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 4th inst. 
Highest " 12 " M., 27th inst.. 



.46° 
.88^ 



Notes f?'0}ii Siinlaud. 



71 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Ramfall at Braidentorun, 
Florida, for the month of March, 1S80, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 



Date. 


VO 








.2 
P< 


Remarlcs. 


I 
2 
3 
4 

I 
I 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 

:i 

17 
18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 


60 
64 

68 
67 
64 
64 

6^ 
76 

§ 
71 
67 
72 
69 
70 
70 

% 

% 
1 

68 

P 

62 
52 


8^? 
80 
82 

% 
li 

82 
84 
84 
86 
86 
86 

ll 

84 

^ 
84 

83 
80 
81 

li 
li 

82 
72 

?^ 

76 


74 

76 
73 

78 
73 
78 
73 
73 

7I 
73 
76 
78 
73 
74 
74 
72 
74 
75 
78 
73 
77 
72 
69 
74 
74 


s, 

N.W. 
S. W. 
S.W. 

s.w. 

w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 

s. 
s.w. 

i: 

s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 

E. 

E. 

E. 

E. 
N.W. 

E. 

E. 

S.W. 

W. 

W. 

S. E. 

E. 




Vs'in. 


Clear. 

Cloudy. 

Clear. 

Rain during night, cloudy all 
Cloudy. [day. 
Rain during night, cloudy all 
Cloudy. [day. 
Clear. 

Rain A. :.!., cloudy P. M. 
Clear. 


Sums, 2,093 
AVge 671^ 


2.530 

8l3^ 


^^ 


...... 


i/in. 





Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 31st inst 52° 

Highest " 12 " M., i2th, 13th and i4lh insts 86° 



72 



Notes from Sunland. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentown^ 
Florida, for the month of April, iSSo, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind ajid Weather. 





^ 


M 




0^* 




Date. 


. 


?^S 




^o< 






VO 




I 


60 


81 


2 


60 


79 


3 


67 


82 


4 


70 


80 


5 


6q 


8i 


6 


6^ 


«3 


7 


68 


82 


8 


68 


82 


9 


70 


77 


lO 


59 


76 


II 


6^ 


79 


12 


6S 


78 


13 


58 


77 


14 


62 


88 


15 


6s 


81 


i6 


68 


83 


17 


70 


84 


i8 


75 


85 


19 


74 


8S 


20 


76 


86 


21 


73 


86 


22 


6g 


86 


23 


72 


^5 


24 


73 


^7 


25 


73 


86 


26 


72 


87 


27 


73 


86 


28 


76 


88 


29 


74 


87 


30 


76 


88 


Sums, 


2,065 


2,497 


Av'ge 


68g 


83^/i 






2,351 
78>^ 



S. W. 

N. W. 

s. w. 

S, E. 
S. W. 

E. 
N. W 
N. W. 

W. 
S. W. 

W. 

W. 

W. 
S. W. 

s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 
s.w. 



li'in. 



larks. 



Clear. 



Cloudy, with rain in the 
Clear. [evening 



Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 13th inst , 

Hrghest " 12 " M., 14th, 28th and 30th insts. 



.58° 



Notes frovi Sunland. 



73 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thei'i7ionicter and Rainfall at Braidentown, 
Florida, for the month of May, iSSo, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather, 





^ 


'^ 


^ 












u 




cj 






Date, 


1^' 


0^ 


|S' 




c 


Remarks 









^ 






J 


73 


89 


86 


E. 




Clear. 


2 


72 


89 


79 


S. E. 


yjn. 


Cloudy, tv'ith rain P. M. 


3 


72 


80 


79 


S. E. 




" with Scotch mist. 


4 


78 


84 


84 


s.w. 





Clear. 


5 


75 


79 


8i 


S. E. 





Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


6 


74 


83 


83 


E. 




Cloudy. 


7 


74 


90 


74 


E, 


I in. 


Rain during P.M. and night. 


8 


75 


80 


76 


E. 


21/ in. 


It a it It 


9 


76 


85 


78 


E. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


lO 


74 


87 


86 


S.W. 




Partly cloudy. 


11 


73 


87 


79 


S.W. 


1 in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


12 


75 


78 




S.W. 


ij^in. 


tt tt it 


13 


72 


83 


83 


S.W, 




Cloudy. 


14 


75 


84 


83 


S.W. 




" 


15 


75 


83 


81 


E. 





Cloudy; wind blowing a gale. 


16 


72 


85 


79 


E. 




It t( it 


17 


70 


86 


80 


E. 




Cloudy, 


18 


73 


87 


83 


E. 





" 


19 


73 


90 


84 


• E, 




" 


20 


75 


90 


82 


S. E. 


%in. 


Rain during P.M. and night. 


21 


75 


90 


80 


S. E. 


1 in. 


" " " " 


22 


75 


79 


78 


S. E. 


2 in. 


" " the day. 


23 


78 


86 


78 


S. E. 


I in. 


" " " 


24 


78 


86 


78 


S. E. 


li in. 


it it tt 


25 


76 


75 


78 


S. E. 


Kin- 


" " " 


26 


76 


88 


78 


S. E. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


% 


75 


89 


86 


S. E. 




Partly cloudy. 


76 


89 


89 


S. E. 




tt tt 


29 


76 


90 


87 


S. E. 


ij'in. 


Rain during night, day clear 


30 


78 


95 


87 


S. E. 




Clear. 


31 


80 


91 


86 


S. E. 






Sums, 
Av'ge 


2,319 

^^y^ 


2,657 


3^ 




ii3/iin 





Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 2d, 3d, 13th and 16th insts...72<^ 
Highest " 12 " M., 30th inst 95'^ 



74 



Note s from Sun/and. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentown, 
Florida, for the fuonth of June, 1880, with Retnarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ 


^ 


M 








Date. 


1^' 




5^" 


¥ 


1^' 


1 
.5 


Remarks. 




:^^' 


"^ 


OfL, 



^ 


fS 




I 


80 


88 


84 


S. E. 


% in. 


Cloudy. 


2 


82 


82 


81 


S. E. 


>^ in. 


" 


3 


80 


87 


85 


w. 


>^ in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


4 


78 


91 


85 


S. E. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 




80 


89 


82 


S. E. 


i3^"in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


6 


81 


87 


80 


S. E. 


>^ in. 


" " " 


7 


79 


90 


85 


s. w. 




Clear. 


8 


80 


89 


87 


S. W. 




" 


9 


82 


91 


90 


S. W. 


I in. 


Rain in evening. 


10 


78 


92 


78 


s. w. 


I in. 


" " afternoon. 


II 


80 


90 


78 


s. w. 


K in. 


•' " " 


12 


79 


92 


88 


s. w. 




Clear. 


13 


82 


90 


88 


s. w. 




" 


14 


84 


91 


87 


w. 




" 


15 


86 


92 


88 


w. 




" 


16 


85 




87 


w. 




" 


17 


79 


89 


88 


s. w. 


I in. 


Rain A. M., clear P. M. 


18 


80 


88 


88 


s. w. 





Clear. 


19 


77 


79 


83 


s. w. 


^ in. 


Rain A. M., clear P. M. 


20 


80 


86 


76 


E. 




Cloudy. 


21 


76 


80 


78 


s. w. 


yk in. 


" 


22 


74 


88 


80 


S. E. 


K in. 


Rain P. M. and at night. 


23 


78 


87 


84 


s. 


I in, 


Rain during night. 


24 


78 


^% 


84 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


25 


78 


86 


s. 


15 in- 


Rain during afternoon. 


26 


80 


92 


86 


S. E. 




Shower during afternoon. 


27 


86 


91 


84 


S. W. 




Light shower in afternoon. 


28 


82 


88 


89 


S. W. 


^X in. 




29 


81 


86 


86 


S. W. 




" " " " 


30 


S3 


94 


86 


S. W. 




J 


Sums, 


2,408 


2.657 


2,53^ 




m in. 




Av'ge 


80K 


88>^ 


84M 









Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 22d inst 74° 



Hi-hest 



M., vAh inst. 



•94^ 



Notes from SiiJila7icL 



75 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermo f?ieier and Rainfall at Braidentown^ 
Florida, for the month of July, i8So, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 





M 


^ 


^ 








Date. 


8s 




Is 


Is 


.B 


Remarks. 




■?■ 


0^ 








I 


82 


96 


82 


s.w. 


iKin. 


Rain during the afternoon. 


2 


82 


92 


87 


s.w. 


3^ in. 


" " " 


3 


84 


91 


90 


s.w. 




Clear. 


4 


84 


91 


84 


s.w. 




Cloudy. 


5 


82 


93 


QI 


s.w. 





Clear. 


6 


84 


92 


88 


s.w. 




Scotch mist in the afternoon. 


I 


84 
84 


79 
93 


84 
89 


S.E. 
S. E. 


TS in- 

Vt. in. 


Rain during P. M. 


9 


81 


85 


81 


S. E. 


3^ in. 


" " " 


lO 


82 


92 


88 


S.W. 




Clear. 


II 


86 


89 


82 


S.w. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


12 


82 


84 


86 


S.w. 


".'.'.'.'. 


" " " 


13 


83 


93 


87 


s.w. 




Cloudy. 


14 


86 


90 


83 


s.w. 


Kin. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


15 


82 


92 


88 


s.w 




Cloudy. 


16 


88 


s 


88 


s.w. 




" 


17 


86 


88 


S.E. 




" 


18 


84 


93 


90 


s.w. 





" 


19 


86 


90 


88 


s.w. 




" 


23 


88 


91 


89 


s.w. 





Clear. 


21 


88 


93 


90 


s.w. 




" 


22 


88 


90 


87 


s.w. 


%:"in. 


Cloudy; rain in the evening. 


23 


84 


92 


84 


s.w. 




Cloudy. 


24 


84 


93 


88 


s.w. 


ij^'in. 


Cloudy ; rain in the evening. 


25 


84 


94 


82 


S.E. 




Scotch mist in the afternoon. 


26 


80 


80 


83 


S.E. 


^"in. 


Rain in the evening. 


27 


80 


80 


83 


S.E. 


I in. 


" " afternoon. 


28 


80 


87 


83 


S.E. 


Hin. 


" " " 


29 


83 


90 


87 


S.W. 




Cloudy and misty. 


30 


82 


90 


85 


S.W. 




Clear. 


31 


80 


84 


83 


S.W. 


h'in. 


Rain at noon. 


Sums, 


2,593 


2,778 


2,688 




iVx in. 




Av'ge 




^% 


863^ 










Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A.M., 26th, 27th, 28th and 31st insts..8o° 
Highest " i: " M., ist inst 96^ 



76 



Notes from SunlanJ. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentown, 
Florida, for the jjionth of Angtist, iSSo, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ 


-y 




^ . 


^ 


. 




Date, 







¥. 


"Ss' 




Remarks. 








^ 


l 




I 


82 


9^ 


86 


s.w. 




Clear. 


2 


82 


91 


83 


S. E. 




" 


3 


82 


90 


86 


s. w. 


Tin'. 


Rain during night. 


4 


78 


82 


79 


S. E. 


ii^ in. 


" " day and night. 


5 


78 


80 


82 


S. E. 


i^ in. 


" " forenoon. 


6 


78 


83 


82 


S.W. 


liin. 


" " afternoon. 




79 


93 


80 


S.W. 


" " " 


8 


82 


92 


84 


S. E. 


I in. 


" " " 


9 


82 


92 


83 


S. E. 


Vt. in. 


" " " 


lO 


81 


91 


88 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


II 


82 


94 


80 


S. E. 


Vz in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


12 


84 


94 


84 


S. E. 


J^in. 


" " " 


13 


82 


90 


87 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


14 


81 


91 


92 


S.W. 




" 


15 


82 


93 


79 


S. E. 


J^'in 


Rain in the afternoon. 


16 


80 


93 


84 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


17 


82 


95 


80 


S. E. 


2 in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


18 


80 


91 


86 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


19 


78 


93 


90 


S. E. 




Clear. 


20 


82 


89 


86 


S. E. 


1^5 in. 


Cloudy, rain in the P. INI. 


21 


80 


89 


89 


S.W. 




Clear, 


22 


84 


92 


89 


S.W. 





" 


23 


86 


96 


90 


S.W. 




" 


24 


84 


93 


88 


S. E. 


f£ 


Cloudy, with rain in the P.M. 


25 


82 


95 


85 


S.W. 


it " " " " 


26 


81 


96 


88 


S. E. 


I in. 


" " " " " 


27 


82 


94 


91 


S. E. 




Clear. 


28 


82 


95 


88 


S. E. 




*_' _ [and night. 


29 


84 


84 


83 


S.W. 


■i% in. 


Rain, wind blowing gale day 


30 


78 


82 


82 


S. 


3 in. 


" " " " " 


31 


80 


90 


84 


S. E. 


Ji in. 


Rain during the forenoon. • 


Sums, 


2,520 


2,814 


2,642 




17 in. 




Av'ge 


84 


93^/^ 


88 










Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 4th, 5th, 6th, 19th and 30thinsts, 

78O 
Highest " 12 " M., 23d and 26th insts 96'' 



Notes from Sunland. 



77 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Recoj'd of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentowii, 
Florida, for the month of September^ iSSo, 7oith Remarks 
in relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ 


^ 


^ 




— • 




Date. 


1^; 




Is 




.5 


Remarks, 




VO 


0'^ 




^ 






I 


81 


86 


82 


S. E. 


^in- 


Cloudy, with rain in P. M. 


2 


78 


88 


78 


S.W. 


I in. 


" " " 


3 


78 


92 


81 


s. 


I in. 


" " " 


4 


80 


92 
92 


88 


S. E. 





Clear. 


5 


82 


87 


S. E. 




ClearA.M., cloudy P.M. 


6 


81 


90 


87 


S. E. 




Clear. 


7 


81 


88 


85 


S.W. 




" 


8 


81 


90 


84 


S.W. 




" 


9 


82 


■ 92 


86 


S.W. 


^i'in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


lO 


80 


94 


87 


S. E. 


/sin. 


" " " 


II 


82 


92 


88 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


12 


82 


94 


87 


S.W. 


I in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


13 


80 


92 


90 


S. 


Vz in. 


Clear day, rain during night. 


14 


82 


90 


88 


S. E. 




Clear. 


IS 


80 


91 


83 


S. E. 


y^ in- 


Clear day, rain during night. 


16 


78 


77 


78 


S. E. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


17 


75 


87 


88 


S. E. 




Clear. 


18 


78 


85 


81 


S. E. 




Cloudy, with strong wind. 


19 


75 


90 


81 


S. E. 


IS in. 
^in. 


Clear A. M., rain P. M. 


20 


78 


90 


84 


S. E. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


21 


78 


93 


88 


S. E, 


i/in. 




22 


78 


92 


87 


S. E. 




Clear. 


23 


78 


94 


89 


S. E. 




" 


24 


77 


94 


90 


S. E. 




" 


25 


80 


90 


85 


S. 





[night. 


26 


78 


92 


87 


S.W. 


% in. 


Rain during early part of 


27 


80 


87 


86 


S.W. 


I in. 


Rain in the morning. 


•28 


85 


90 


86 


N.W. 




Clear. 


29 


79 


88 


84 


S. E. 




" 


30 


73 


90 


87 


S. E. 






Sums, 


2,377 


2,702 


2,562 





75^ in. 




Av'ge 


79^X 


90 


85 





.... 





Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 30th inst 70° 

Highest " 12 " M., loth, i2th, 23d and 24th insts...94° 



78 



Notes from Sun land. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer mid Rainfall at Braidentoivn, 
Florida, for the month of October, 1880, with Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ ' 


.i4 


-^ . 


rt 


_. 




Date. 


-§^. 





%^ 




3 


Remarks. 




VO 






^ 


"3 




I 


73 


92 


87 


S. E. 




Clear. 


2 


70 


90 


85 


S. E. 




" 


3 


76 


92 


87 


S. E. 




" 


4 


76 




85 


S. E. 




" 


5 


77 


86 


81 


S. E. 


Vs in. 


Cloudy, with rain. 


6 


76 


8a 


80 


S. E. 


/sin. 


" " " 


7 


78 


8d 


78 


S. E. 


3^ in. 


Cloudy, with heavy rain. 


8 


8^ 


86 


85 


S. W. 


2 in. 


Clear A. M., rain P. M. 


9 


80 


82 


79 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


10 


76 


90 


87 


S. 




Clear. 


11 


78 


90 


86 


E. 




" 


12 


78 


88 


82 


E. 





" 


13 


70 


88 


88 


E. 





" 


14 


76 


93 


82 


E. 





" 


15 


70 


87 


82 


E. 




" 


16 


68 


87 


80 


E. 




" 


17 


72 


85 


77 


S. 


% in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


18 


66 


79 


75 


E. 





Clear. 


19 


69 


84 


81 


N. E. 




" 


20 


75 


86 


80 


S. E. 


J^ in. 


Rain in the morning. 


21 


70 


87 


82 


S. E. 


I in. 


" during the night. 


22 


78 


82 


76 


N. W. 


5^ in. 


" in the morning. 


23 


68 


78 


73 


N. W. 




Clear. 


24 


62 


8d 


76 


S. E. 




<< 


25 


60 


79 


80 


E. 




" 


26 


62 


82 


80 


S. E. 




" 


27 


68 


86 


81 


S. E. 




" 


28 


74 


72 


74 


S. E. 


j'yl'in. 


Cloudy, with heavy rain. 


29 


1^ 


80 


79 


N. W. 


IX in. 


" " rain. 


3'3 


75 


80 


76 


N. W. 




Cloudy 


31 


72 


82 


78 


s. w. 




Clear. 


Sums, 


2,245 


2,625 


2.502 




9% in. 




Av'ge 


72 J^ 


843/i 


80.% 










Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 25th inst 60° 

Highest " 12 " M., 14th inst 93° 



Notes from Sunland. 



79 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Therjnonieter and Rainfall at Braidentozvn, 
Florida, for the month of November, 1880, ivith Remarks 
in relatioji to Wind and Weather. 





^ 


^ 


^ 








Date. 


Is 



1^ 


¥. 






Remarks. 




■^•< 


VO 


^ 






I 


68 


86 


79 


S.E. 




Cloudy A. M., Clear P. M. 


2 


68 


82 


78 


N.W. 




Clear A.M., Cloudy P.M. 


3 


68 


83 


78 


s.w. 


. 


Clear. 


4 


70 


80 


80 


N.E. 


K'in. 


Rain during the night. 




78 


86 


82 


S. 




Clear. 


6 


77 


86 


81 


s. 




" 


7 


74 


75 


76 


N. 




Cloudy. 


8 


70 


80 


77 


S.E. 





" 


9 


72 


90 


85 


E. 




Clear. 


10 


77 


85 


78 


S. 




Cloudy. 


ir 


70 


84 


78 


S. E. 




Clear. 


.12 


70 


82 


82 


E. 




" 


13 


70 


87 


86 


S.E. 




" 


14 


74 


83 


80 


S. 


ii'in. 


Clear day, rain at night. 


15 


70 


70 


66 


N.E. 




Cloudy. 


16 


50 


72 


71 


\¥" 




Clear. 


17 


60 


75 


73 


w. 




" 


18 


64 


80 


76 


w. 




Cloudy. 


19 


70 


78 


79 


E. 




" 


20 


77 


75 


72 


N.E. 


%in. 


Rain in the forenoon . 


21 


62 


76 


77 


E. 




Clear A. M., Cloudy P. M. 


22 


68 


84 


76 


E. 




" " " " 


23 


63 


76 


67 


N.E. 




Cloudy. 


24 


65 


79 


79 


S.E. 




" 


25 


71^ 


80 


74 


N.W. 




" and foggj'. 


26 


71 


75 


75 


S. E. 




" 


27 


72 


80 


76 


S.E. 





Clear. 


28 


71 


84 


78 


S. 




" 


29 


71 


84 


84 


S.E. 




" 


30 


70 


86 


78 


S.E. 






Sums. 


2,081 


2,412 


2,321 




xM in. 




Av'ge 


69^ 


80/3 


77/3 









Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., i6th inst 50° 

Highest " 12 " M., 9th inst 90° 



So 



Notes from Sunland. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentown^ 
Florida, for the month of December, j8So, 7uith Remarks 
in relation to Wind and Weather. 



Date. 




1 
T 






1 
.S 


Remarks. 


I 

2 

3 
4 
5 
6 

I 

9 

lO 

II 

12 

13 
14 

15 

'J 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 

:? 

29 
30 
31 


^6 

?6 
56 
45 
52 
52 
45 
50 
50 

1 

70 
70 

42 
46 

52 
52 
43 
54 
40 
38 


80 
84 
82 
82 
82 
11 
68 
72 
73 
69 
72 
75 

?B 
78 
81 
82 
82 

11 
81 
60 
56 
71 

s 

66 

65 
71 
51 
50 


80 
84 

82 
80 
78 

p 

64 

69 
72 
75 
73 
73 
75 
75 

65 
55 
54 

68 
67 
68 

t 
t 

45 

53 


s. 

w. 
s. w. 

s. 

s. 
s. w. 

N. E. 

E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 
N.W. 
S. E. 

S. 

S. 

s. 
s.w. 

s. 

N.W. 

N.W. 
N. E. 
S. E. 
S.W. 

S. 
N. E. 
N.W. 
S. E. 
S. E. 
N.W. 
N. E. 


^'iii. 
>^ in. 

Hin. 

J/s'ln. 
I in. 


Cloudy. 
Clear. 

Cloudy, with rain. 
Clear. 

Rain morning and afternoon. 
Rain in the afternoon. 
Cloudy. 

Clear. 

Rain in the afternoon. 
Cloudy. 

Clear. 

Rain in the afternoon. 
Cloudy. [of the year. 
Drizzling rain. Coldest day 


Sums, 
Av'ge 


1,788 
573/i 


2,237 
74/3 


2,117 

68K 




2)^ in. 





Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 31st inst. 
Highest " 12 " ]M., 2d inst 



.38° 
.84° 



Notes from Siinland. 



8i 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentoiun, 
Florida, for the month of fanuary, i88r, with Remarks 
in relation to Wind and Weather. 





^ 


^ 


^ 








Date. 




5S' 


¥■ 




s 


Remarks. 




"o<! 


0^ 


i'^ 


^ 






I 


54 


78 


59 


s. 


iK i"' 


Rain during the afternoon. 


2 


50 


67 


63 


E. 




Clear. 


3 


46 


74 


70 


E. 





" 


4 


69 


80 


77 


S. 




" 


5 


74 


79 


71 


s. 


I in. 


Rain nearly all day. 


6 


66 


68 


66 


E. 


y-i in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


7 


63 


67 


67 


E. 


I in. 


Rain morning and afternoon . 


8 


65 


68 


69 


S. E. 


>4 in. 


Rain in the afternoon. 


9 


66 


75 


72 


S. E. 




Cloudy. 


lO 


73 


80 


75 


S. 


y. in. 


Rain during the night. 

afternoon. 


II 


68 


76 


65 


N.W. 


/sin. 


12 


54 


62 


62 


E. 




Cloudy. 


13 


48 


78 


75 


E. 





Clear. 


14 


64 


75 


70 


S. 




Cloudy. 


15 


68 


77 


70 


w. 


Hi"- 


Rain in the afternoon. 


i6 


66 


82 


76 


s.w. 




Clear. 


17 


64 


83 


80 


S. E. 





" 


i8 


66 


87 


79 


E. 




" 


19 


66 


83 


78 


S. E. 




" 


20 


66 


77 


72 


S. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


21 


66 


75 


70 


S.W. 




Clear A. M., cloudy P. M. 


22 


60 


76 


66 


S. E. 




Clear. 


23 


57 


60 


58 


N.E. 


X'in. 


Rain P. M. and night. 


24 


53 


60 


56 


N.W. 


Sin. 


" " 


25 


52 


55 


52 


N.E. 




Cloudy. 


26 


44 


76 


64 


N.E. 




Clear. 


27 


48 


72 


62 


N.E. 




li 


28 


54 


67 


64 


N.E. 




Cloudy. 


29 




80 


74 


E. 




Clear. 


30 


60 


78 


76 


N.W. 




" 


31 


55 


78 


74 


N.W. 




" 


Sums . 


1,861 


2,293 


2,132 




sKin. 




Av'ge 


60 


74 


683^ 









Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 26th inst 44° 

Highest " 12 " M., 17th and 19th insts 83'^ 



82 



Notes from Sunland. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of the Thermometer and Rainfall at Braidentoxun, 
Florida, for the month of February, 1881, with Remarks 
in relation to Wind aitd Weather. 



Date. 


J4 

VO 


"8 


. 

VO 




3 

c 


Remarks, 


I 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 

25 

26 
27 
28 


56 
65 

54 
50 

S 

66 
64 
68 
65 

48 
52 
58 
59 
62 
67 

^9 
65 
60 

5^ 
58 
60 
60 
65 
69 


76 
71 

75 
75 
78 

79 
72 
84 
81 

66 

84 
85 
82 
81 
76 
80 
80 
80 


72 

62 

^9 
69 

72 
73 

?? 
?^ 

62 

66 

^^ 
76 

74 

74. 

69 

66 

73 

74 

74 

77 


S. E. 

S. w. 
s. w. 

S. E. 

N. E. 
N. E. 
N. E. 

E. 
S. E. 
S. E. 

S. 

s. w. 

w. 

N.W. 

N. W. 

N. E. 

S.E. 

S.E. 

S.E. 

S.W. 
N.W. 

S.W. 

S. E. 

N. E. 
E. 

S. E. 
S. 

w. 


/4 in. 
Vz in. 

:::::: 

2 in. 


Clear. 

Rain in the afternoon. 

Clear. 

Cloudy. 

Clear. 

Clear, wind blowing a gale. 

Rain in the afternoon. 
Clear. 

Rain in the afternoon. 
Clear. 

Cloudy. 

Clear. [gale. 
Rain, with wind blowing a 
Clear, " 


Sums, 
Av'ge 


1,712 

61^8 


2,054 1,970 

73K 70>^ 




2Kin. 





Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock A. M., 14th inst 48° 

Highest " 12 " M., iSth ipst , 85° 



JVofes froDi Suiihmd. 



^2. 



METEOROLOGICAL. 

Record of tJie Ther7)ioi)U'te)' and Raiiifall at Braidento7vn, 
Florida, for the month of March, 1881, loith Remarks in 
relation to Wind and Weather. 





.:^ 


^ 










Date. 


. 
59 






is p^ 


Remarks. 


J 


74 


61 


N.W. 





Clear. 


2 




75 


69 


N. W. 




" 


3 


60 


75 


71 


S.W. 




" 


4 


59 


71 


63 


N.W. 




" 


5 


66 


74 


63 


N.W. 




" 


6 


59 


68 


68 


N.W. 




" 


7 


53 


72 


73 


E. 




" 


8 


60 


78 


69 


S. 


xV^'i". 


Rain P. M. and night. 


9 


62 


78 


67 


N.W. 




Clear. 


10 


57 


72 


70 


S. E. 





" 




52 


79 


73 


S. E. 




" 


12 


73 


81 


75 


S.W. 




Cloudy, with Scotch mist. 


13 


73 


75 


72 


N.W. 




" " 


14 


65 


80 


77 


N. E. 




Cloudy. 


15 


67 


88 


80 


N. E. 




Clear. 


16 


67 


83 


75 


S. 




" 


17 


66 


80 


76 


S.W. 




" 


18 


72 


82 


78 


S.W. 




" 


19 


72 


79 


76 


S.W. 


I in. 


Cloudy, rain P.M. and night. 


20 


68 


70 


64 


N.W. 




Cloudy. 


21 


63 


74 


67 


S.W. 


ii i'V 


Cloudy, with rain at night. 


22 


62 


65 


61 


N. E 




Clear, wind blowing a gale. 


'-2 3 


52 


66 


58 


N.W. 




Clear. 


24 


59 


74 


71 


N.W. 




" 


25 


56 


74 


66 


S.W. 




" 


26 


65 


70 


69 


S.W. 


...... 


Cloudy. 


27 


60 


72 


63 


S.W. 




Clear. 


28 


52 


78 


71 


S. E. 


.... . 


" 


29 


57 


75 


70 


S.W. 


...... 


" 


30 


59 


65 


64 


N.W. 





Clear, wind blowing a gale. 




60 


68 


63 


N.W. 


214 in. 




Sums, 


1,914 


2,315 


2,143 




Av'ge 


62 


74K 


693^ 









Lowest temperature at 6 o'clock, A. M., nth, 23d and 28th insts 52° 

Highest ■• I-; " M., 15th inst 83'= 



ELLENTON 

PLANTATION LANDS 



The undersigned offers for sale the unsold portion of the 
'•Ellenton" (formerly "Gamble'") Plantation Lands. 
These lands lie on the north side of the Manatee River, 
opposite the village of Manatee. About one-half (say 
twelve hundred acres) were cleared and cultivated in cane 
before the war, and have lain waste since. The other por- 
tion is uncleared. 

It is all First Quality Dry Hammock^ 

and is the largest body of fine land on the Gulf Coast; 
admirably suited by climate, soil and accessibility for the 
successful cultivation of all the semi-tropical fruits, garden 
vegetables, etc., etc , which can be grown in Florida. These 
lands are now selling rapidly in parcels of ten, twenty and 
forty acres to settlers from all the States, and from the more 
northeiTi parts of the Peninsula, who ai-e making it, what it 
is destined to be, 

"THE GARDEN OF FLORIDA." 

For health and pleasantness it is unexcelled. Society is 
good and constantly improving by the immigration of moral, 
intelligent, cultivated and thrifty settlers. 

Semi -weekly communication by Mail Steamers with 
Cedar Keys, thence by Rail with all sections. 

Persons desiring to secure homes on these lands must 
apply soon. 

ADDRESS : 

GEORGE PATTEN, 

Manatee, Florida. 

NO AGENTS. 



EDGAR M. GRAHAM, 

ATTORNEY AT LAW, 

Solicitor in Cliancefp) Real [state Apnt, 

Manatee and Braitlentown, Florida, 

Will Practice in all the Counties of the Sixth Judi- 
cial Circuit of Florida. 



Having been Probate Judge for seven years, is especially 
qualified to attend to all matters connected with the estates 
of deceased persons. 

Is thoroughly acquainted with the situation and 
quality of all classes of lands subject to entry and purchase 
in Manatee County. Has been engaged for the last thirteen 
years in the selection and location of Homesteads, having 
had official and professional connection with nine-tenths 
of the Homesteads located in the county. 

Maps and abstracts of titles furnished at reasonable prices. 
Homestead blanks of all descrij^tions constantly on hand. 
Correspondence solicited and information furnished. 

Tracts of the hcsifruii and vegetable lands in the county, 
from ten to forty acres, for sale, within a mile of Sunnyside 
Cottage. These lands are situated on the most elevated and 
beautiful ridge in Manatee County, with splendid building 
sites and delightful springs of water, and being situated only 
a little more than a mile from the Steamboat wharf and 
Post Office at Braidentown, and entirely cut off" from the 
high winds sometimes prevailing on the coast. 

Refers, by permission, to all the matters stated in the above 
card, to Mr. Samuel C. Upham, and to professional standing 
to the " Bradstreet Company" and H. K. & F. B. Thurber, 
New York. 

Post Offfces at Braidentown and Manatee. 



FOR SALE 

A BEAUTIFUL AND WKLL 
LOCATED PLACE 

Adjoining the town of Palmetto, 138 acres — 126 prairie, 
six timber, six in cultivation ; house of five rooms ; bearing 
trees, six orange, four lemon, two citron, five guavas, one 
grape ; fruit trees in grove, 200 orange, eleven Japan plum, 
ten sand pear, four Japan persimmons ; a lot of lemon, 
guavas, limes, mulberry, chestnut and 100 Concord grape 
vines, strawberries. Pond water on prairie. Will make good 
stock farm. Thirty acres fine orange land. Fine boat landing 
near house; fine sulphur spring near house, will become 
noted some day. Finest garden of flowers, shrubs, etc., in 
the county. For further description of my place, see page 
35 of this book. Price, $i8co Cash. 

Call on or address, 

D. ZEHNER, Palmetto, Manatee, Co., Florida. 
DAVID SCATTERGOOD, 





S. E. Cohner Fifth and Chestnut Streets, 

(Three doors above the Post-office,) 

PHILADELPHIA, 



Wood Engraving of all descriptions done with dispatch. 
Buildings, Store Fronts, Machines, Labels, Show Cards, 
Illustrated Price Lists, Book Covers, Newspaper Heads, 
Trade Marks, Advertising Designs, Etc, Drawn and En- 
graved in the best stvle. and at low Prices. 



HOMES IN FLORIDA. 



A most admirable way for those contemplating a settle- 
ment in the genial climate of Florida to procure correct and 
valuable information concerning it, is to subscribe for z. first- 
class newspaper devoted to the development of every section 
of the State, 

TJe Florida Uqion 

is such a paper. Its Daily Edition, the only Daily in the 
State, contains full Associated Press Dispatches and gives 
the freshest news to the people of the State. Each number 
of The Weekly Union contains facts about the State valuable 
to the intended settler, and its Agricultural Department, 
edited by an experienced agriculturist, is invaluable to the 
farmei> fruit grower and horticulturist. 

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



Daily, 


per Year, . 
" Three Months, 






$10.00 
2.50 


C( 


" One Month, . 






1.00 


"Weekly, 


" Year, 






2.00 


(( 


" Six Months, 






1.00 


(1 


" Three Months, 






.50 




ADDRESS 






McCALLUM & LAWTON, 


Jacksonville, 


Florida. 



PHOTOGRAPHER. 

Gallery at Manatee next to Harllee's Store. 
In Tampa, next to Jackson's Store. 

Viewsof Residences, Mills and Public Buildings a Specialty. 



TAMPA 

AND THE 

GULF COAST! 



If you want reliable information from 
South Florida, subscribe for the 




IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIMIIIMIIIIIIIIMIIIIIMIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIl 



PUBLISHED AT TAMPA, FLORIDA, 

At $2.00 per Year. 

Dr. J. P. WALL, Editor. 

T. K. SPENCER, Publisher. 



This Paper has done more to develop the resources of this 
section than any other paper, and has rehable correspon- 
dents in every County. Gives facts with no rose coloring. 

SAMPLE COPY, TEN CENTS. 



J. M. HELM Sl son, 



Having made orange culture a special study for the past four years, 
during which time we have tried various experiments, both in the 
manner of planting and mode of cultivating the orange tree, we feel safe 
in saying to the public that we are now prepared to prosecute orange 
culture in a manner guaranteeing the best results. 

Hurserj Trees of the Finest Quality Always on Hand. 

Persons desiring anything in our line will receive prompt attention by 
calling on or addressing 

J. M. HELM & SON, 

Manatee, Florida. 



PINEAPPLE 

AND 

BANANA LAND, 



A few acres of land admirably adapted to the 
cultivation of the Pine Apple and Banana, situated 
on the east bank of Ware's Creek, in the village 
of Braidentown, will be sold in lots to suit pur- 
chasers. 

ADDRESS : 

SAMUEL C. UPHAM, 

Braidentown, South Florida. 



HUNT'S 

COURT TOILET POWOER, 

Prepared in Two Shades, Flesh and White. 

Established in London, 1850, ami in Philadelphia in 1855. 

Sustaining injunction granted by the Courts of 

Philadelphia, in 1881. 

A ROMANCE OF REALITY. 

The Devices of the Queens of Society. 

How Plain Features are Made Attractive. 
The Biemishes of Nature Hidden by the Witchery of Art 

Is the BEST Beautifying Cosmetic in the World. 
BERFECTLT HARMZiESS. 

J^m^L Fin* Complexion is a Gift without which there is no Beauty.'^^H 

This Delightful Prenaration, by its notirishing action on the 
skin, speedily and permanently IMPARTS NATURE'S ROSEATE 
HUE OF HEALTH TO THE COMPLEXION. As its merits be- 
come known throughout the fashionable world, it is rapidly 
driving out and superseding all other cosmetics claiming to 
beautify and improve the skin and complexion. 

In Philadelphia alone OVER FIVE HUNDRED of the best 
Druggists and Dealers in Fine Toilet Goods have adopted it as 
The Best Cosmetic. 

For this zmprecedenfed patronage^ the proprietor is happy to ac- 
knowledge his indebtedness to the ladies who, after giving it a 
trial, and finding it all it claimed to be, called for it. and passing 
high encomiums upon its excellent qualities, induced their 
Iriends, also, to give it a trial. 

HUNT S COURT TOILET POWDER 

removes all blemishes and conceals every draAvback to beauty : 
and while it is perfectly innocent and hakmlkss, it is so 

LIFE-LIKE IN ITS EFFECTS, THAT THE CLOSEST SCRUTINY FAILS TO 
DETECT ITS USE. 

PRICE. 25 Cts.f by mail, 30 Cts., stamps taTcen. 

ivi one ccenuine unless signed . ,, .,..., 

^^^ ' ^ All genuine has fac-simile 

SA-'TO rVl ri /\ />-v\ signature of D. P. MASON on 

«KJ, / . / f Li-*-^ €/r\y^ jij^^ ^jf ijox-lid, of which you 

Successor to Hunt & Co. ^^'i^l see an imprint on this 

Beware of injurious counterfeits. ^ * ' 

SOLD EVERYWHERE. 
Address all communications to 

J*. O. Jiox 2097, PUILADELPMIA, PA. 



FLORIDA. 

For RELIABLE INFORMATION regarding Florida, 
its Climate, Production and Resources, subscribe for the 

FLORIDA jlGRlCULTURIST, 

A Large 8-Page Weekly. $2.00 per Annum. 

C. CODRINGTON & CO., 

DeLand, Florida. 

All interested in Florida, especially the 
Gulf Coast, subscribe for the 

MANATEE COUNTY NEWS. 

$2.00 PER ANNUM. 

ADDRKSS": 

P. 0. Box 1, Manatee. G. CASPER, Editor. 

THE SPRING PHARMACY. 

Pure Drugs I Chemicals Alwajs in Stock. 

MANATEE, S. FLORIDA. 



PRICE, 25 CENTS. 



NOTES FROM 



SUN LAND, 

ox THH 

Jfanatee ^m, (|ulf doa^t 

ol' 

SOUTH FLORIDA. 

ITS CLIMATE, SOIL AXD PLODUCTLOXS. 



The Land of tte Orange and Guava, 
Tlie Pine-Apple, Date and Cassava. 



sy s.i^:M:Tj:Eii. c. tj:pi3:..^:m:. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



BRAJDENTOWN, FLA.: 

Philadelphia, 25 South Eighth Strkkt. 

Published by ttiic Author. 

18S1. 



W, S. WARHER & COMPAHV, 

Palma Sola, Manatee Co., Fla., 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



lellow Fins, Cyprsss 46k Uer 

Fruit anfl VegetaWe Crates, Lalli M SMngles. 

DEALERS IN 

DOORS. SASH, BUNDS, MOLDINGS. BUILDERS' HARD^ 
WARE, LIME, CEMENT, STONE, Etc. 

PROPRIETORS OF 

PALMA SOLA DOCK & WAREHOUSE, 
STOCK YARD AND "CASH STORE." 

Contractors for the erection of Public Edifices, Residences or Stores 
in any part of South Florida or Cuba. House frames complete, shipped 
to any point, with all fittings and trimmings numbered and fitted ready 
to put together. 

All the Standard Sizes of Vegetable and Fruit Crates 

Kept in Stock and any size made to Order. 

Sponge and boat poles of any length turned to order. Any style of 
wood turning or scroll sawing done in the best manner. Door and 
Window frames of all regular sizes always on hand. 

HARD PINE FLOORING OUR SPECIALTY. 

BLACKSMITH, WHEELWRIGHT and MACHINE WORK 
done in the best possible. style. Work guaranteed. A full stock of 
steam pipes, fittings and tools enables us to give bottom prices in this 
work. Rubber Belting, Packing and Engine supplies always in stock. 
Write us for prices. 

W. S. WARNER & CO. 



Florida ponie^. 



l^OR SALE a well-finished 2^ -story house 
32 X 43 feet, with large dining-room and cook- 
house attached ; two stores, warehouse and wharf, 
all nearly new, with ten acres of land on the bank 
of the Manatee River, in the village of Braiden- 
town. The house contains ten rooms, and is now 
occupied as a boarding house. 

Also, forty acres or more of excellent hammock 
land on the old Cofield and Davis plantation, on 
the north side of the Manatee River, nearly oppo- 
site the village of Manatee. From twenty acres 
of this land were shipped this spring 2500 crates 
of vegetables, mostly tomatoes, netting the owner 
;^2.oo per crate. 

Also, eight years' old bearing orange grove of 
nearly 1000 trees, at Oak Hill, 2^ miles from the 
Manatee River. 

Also, 360 acres of best quality hammock land, 
in Sumter County, Fla., on the line of the rail- 
road now being built between Ocala and Tampa. 

For further particulars, address, 

WM. I. TURNER, 

Braidentown, Florida. 



VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA 

TOGETHER WITH 

SCENES IN EL DORADO, 

In the Years 1849 and '50. 

-WITH AN APPENDIX- 

Containing Reminiscences of Pioneer Journalism in California — Cali- 
fornia Day at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, September 9th, 
1876 — Together with Articles of Association and Roll of Members of 
" The Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California." 

333r JS.A-lVtXJ:E3Xj O- XJI^H-A-IVE 

WITH FORTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. 

"All of which I saw, and a part of w^hich I was." 

This work contains 600 large octavo pages, printed on fine, heavy 
book paper, and is bound in Turkey cloth, with heavy beveled boards. 
Only a few copies remain unsold. Price, $3.00. 

PRESS NOTICES. 

New York Herald, Nov. 29th, 1878, says : 

"The work throughout is highly entertaining, Mr. Upham's 
perambulations through the diggings are graphically related, as are the 
queer and comic incidents that occurred at various stopping places 
during the voyage. From title-page to finis the book is highly 
interesting." 

Col. Forney's Progress says, Jan. 25th, 1879 • 

" A volume of Adventure and History that could be compounded 
in no other country under the sun. Mr. Upham has rendered a signal 
service to the country by his beautiful book ; it is full of interest to the 
editor, bringing back to mind such names as General Winfield S. Han- 
cock, Bayard Taylor, Commodore Stockton and General John W. 
Geary." 

Philadelphia } ublic Ledger says, Nov. 30th, 1878 : 

"The Author having experience as a journalist as well as mer- 
chant, being of quick perception and with a keen sense of humor, and 
having been eye-witness to what he describes, his story is told in graphic 
style and with manifest relish in the telling." 



Kennet Advance, Kennet Square, Pa., May 8th, 1880, says : 

'■ F'or the general reader it possesses an interest far beyond that 
of an ordinary book of travels or personal adventure. As long as this 
book lasts Mr. Upham will have the gratitude of every reader fortunate 
enough to turn its pages." , 

Emerson Bennett, the eminent novelist, author of "Prairie Flower," 
"Phantom of the -Forest," etc., says, "It reads like Robinson Crusoe.'" 

Sent, post-paid, to any address, by S. ZENAS UPHAM, 25 
South Eighth Stireet, Philadelphia, Pa. 



